March 05, 2011 (Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia) – It was Germany’s day at the IBU World Championships with veteran Magdalena Neuner claiming another title as she withstood powerful winds to shoot clean and claim gold in the women’s 7.5km Sprint with a time of 20:31.2 in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia

“I tried to run very fast today. I was very concentrated in the shooting range, which was very important,” Neuner told Biathlonworld.com, “When I was in the mixed zone and saw Kaisa [Mäkäräinen] had zero mistakes; it became very exciting for me. I was very nervous and had to wait, but I am the lucky winner.”

Mäkäräinen of Finland, took the silver medal, propelling her to the top of the overall World Cup standings. She also shot clean, finishing 12.2 seconds out of 1st.

“Before the race, I was pretty nervous because I had difficulties zeroing, because the wind was going all around,” commented Mäkäräinen, “But then I thought that I have had good races when the zeroing was kind of a mess, so I tried to concentrate and not look at that anymore and look forward…I am very happy now.”

Slovakia’s Anastasiya Kuzmina, who battled illness earlier in the week, grabbed the final podium spot after a one-miss performance that left her 40 seconds out of gold.

“I was sick and like any athlete, the World Championships are very important. Of course I felt disappointed after the missed target, but I did my best on the last loop,” Kuzmina said of her result, “It is nice to have this one, but as usual, I want more.”

Sara Studebaker posted the top American result with a 3-miss performance to put her in 48th place. Annalies Cook finished 57th after a 2-miss race that gave her a finishing time of 24:26.1. Finishing 72nd was Haley Johnson, who missed a pair of shots in each shooting stage, and Laura Spector finished 79th after a 5-miss performance.

Zina Kocher was the lone Canadian racer, missing five targets to finish 61st with a time of 24:34.5.

Full results HERE.

Results (Brief)

1. Magdalena Neuner, GER (0+0) 20:31.2
2. Kaisa Mäkäräinen, FIN (0+0) 20:43.4
3. Anastasiya Kuzmina, SVK (0+1) 21:11.2

48. Sara Studebaker, USA (1+2) 23:56.6
57. Annalies Cook, USA (1+1) 24:26.1
61. Zina Kocher, CAN (2+3) 24:34.5
72. Haley Johnson, USA (2+2) 24:58.8
79. Laura Spector, USA (3+2) 25:29.8