March 04, 2012 (Ruhpolding, GER) – Belarusian Darya Domracheva scored a decisive victory and the biggest win of her career on Sunday in the women’s 10km pursuit at the IBU World Championships in Ruhpolding, Germany. Domracheva finished 25 seconds ahead of yesterday’s gold medalist Magdalena Neuner from Germany, and 1:15 in front of Russia’s Olga Vilukhina who claimed the bronze.

After racing neck and neck for the first part of the race, it was Neuner who headed out on the fourth loop with a 12-second advantage, but it was Domracheva who stormed back with a clean final round of shooting while Neuner faltered with two penalties, giving Domracheva a lead that she held to the finish.

“On the shooting range for the last standing, it was only me and my targets, just like a tunnel,” said Domracheva to biathlonworld.com. “I did not know what Lena had shot, but when I left the shooting range, I saw she was on the penalty loop. Then I knew I could win.”

Canada’s Zina Kocher lead the North American women in the pursuit with a 26th place while American Susan Dunklee finished in 36th position – up from her starting spot of 55th.

“Today’s race went much as I hoped it would,” said Dunklee in a team release. “The tracks were much firmer today and I was able to work with many different skiers to move up each loop.  This was my first experience moving forwards (rather than backwards) in a pursuit race and it was exciting to catch so many people.”

Other North American results include Megan Imrie of Canada finishing in 39th place while USA’s Sara Studebaker was 41st, with Canadian Megan Heinicke placing 42nd overall.

The women have a two-day break from competition as racing resumes on Wednesday with the Women’s 15km Individual.

Full women’s results HERE