March 06, 2011 (Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia) – Finland’s Kaisa Mäkäräinen overtook Germany’s Magdalena Neuner in a sharpshooting battle that lasted until the final stage. Both shot clean through the first three laps, but Neuner missed two keys targets in the second standing stage to seal Mäkäräinen’s victory. The Finnish biathlete, and overall World Cup leader, shot clean on the day for a winning time of 30:00.1.

“I am trying to believe what has happened, but it is hard to believe,” Mäkäräinen said of her victory according in an IBU release, “It has been an amazing two days. I am really happy, because the races have been really good. Both of them have been worthy of medals.”

Neuner’s two misses put her 21.6 seconds out of gold as she settled for second place with a final time of 31:21.7.

“I thought it was okay. I have had really good competitions including today and I am only human; not a machine,” Neuner said of her two costly misses, “Everybody can miss two targets…I saw that Kaisa was eight seconds ahead of me.

“I knew that I could not fight with her. She is very strong and so am I, but eight seconds is a lot…so I wanted to make a cool down in that lap and enjoy my silver medal.”

Sweden’s Helena Ekholm jumped two spots thanks to a no-miss performance, and took bronze in a time of 31:43.7. Ekholm’s result helped to solidify her 3rd place position in the overall World Cup standings.

“It was hard to win,” Ekholm said of the competition, “It took two years to get a medal; it feels really good now.”

Sara Studebaker of the United States hit 16 of her 20 targets to jump ten spots for a 38th place finish. Teammate Annalies Cook was one of 14 competitors to be lapped, and thus disqualified from finishing. There were no Canadian racers in Sunday’s pursuit competition.

Full results HERE.

Results (Brief)

1. Kaisa Mäkäräinen, FIN (0+0+0+0) 30:00.1
2. Magdalena Neuner, GER (0+0+0+2) 30:21.7
3. Helena Ekholm, SWE (0+0+0+0) 31:43.7

38. Sara Studebaker, USA (1+1+0+2) 37:14.3
LAP. Annalies Cook, USA (0+1+1+2)