She delighted home fans when she crossed the line in 13min 06.01sec to cement her place atop the cross-country world rankings heading into the biathlon finals in Oberried, Germany, on Thursday (23 January).

In the men's event, Canada's Chris Klebl once again sped to victory in 23:34.07 to follow on from his long distance win on Friday (January 17).

His win was not enough to stop Russia's Roman Petsuhkov from winning the overall World Cup title however, despite the world champion's third place finish behind Ukraine's Maksim Yarovyi.

Brian McKeever sealed his spot as the best in the world with his second gold medal of the World Cup in the men's visually impaired event ©Getty Images



Klebl's Canadian teammate Brian McKeever, alongside guide Erik Carleton, secured a second gold medal of the World Cup with victory in the men's visually impaired race.

McKeever saw off stiff competition from Russian world champion Nikolay Polukhin to seal his spot as the best in the world heading into Sochi 2014 in less than 50 days time.

Polukhin and guide Andrey Tokarev finished in 25:37.1 with Solleftea 2013 silver medalist and world number two teammate Stanislav Chokhlaev completing the podium.

That performance secured Chokhlaev the overall World Cup win.

The women's visually impaired event saw a complete white-wash for the Russian athletes.

The race was eventually won by reigning world champion Mikhalina Lysova, alongside guide Alexey Ivanov, ahead of world number one Elena Remizova and her guide Natalia Yakimov.

Iuliia Budaleeva, guided by Tatiana Maltseva, completed the podium in third.

Rounding off the day's action was a double win for reigning world champion standing skiers Russian Vladislav Lekomtcev and Ukraine's Oleksandra Kononova.

Ukraine's Oleksandra Kononova leads the world rankings heading into Sochi after her win against teammate, and world number two, Iuliia Batenkova and Russian Anna Milenina in the women’s standing event ©Getty Images



Kononova leads the world rankings heading into Sochi after her win against teammate, and world number two, Iuliia Batenkova and Russian Anna Milenina in the women's event.

Lekomtcev's win over 10 kilometre in 26:37.7 does not affect compatriot Minnegulov's status as the overall World Cup winner, who added to his profile with a second place, ahead of a second third place of the weekend for Japan's Yoshishiro Nitta.

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