Dahlmeier, who had endured a torrid campaign to date owing to constant injury problems, took the women's 7.5 kilometres sprint honours in a time of 21min 33.4sec with clean shooting.

Compatriot Franziska Hildebrand came through to ensure a German one-two as she narrowly missed out on victory, while home favourite Veronika Vítková claimed third.

The usually dominant Belarusian Darya Domracheva could only manage fourth, which keeps her in second place on the overall World Cup leaderboard on 723 points, 27 behind Finland's Kaisa Mäkäräinen.

"I thought it might be a great day when I woke up," Dahlmeier said.

"It was nice outside; I felt good; but on the tracks, not so strong that I could win the race.

"I am very happy to have won.

"I have dreamed about this since I was a junior.

"I always said that I wanted to go to the World Cup and win."

Slovenia's Jakov Fak claimed his first victory of the season as he won the men's 10km sprint ©Getty Images



In the men's race, Fak also tasted his first success of the season as he raced around the 10km course in 24:09, 12.8 seconds in front of Simon Schempp, which ended the German's recent winning run.

Schempp had claimed a hat-trick of victories but Fak proved too strong this time around, while France's Jean-Guillaume Béatrix was third.

Fak, like Dahlmeier in the women's race, managed to shoot clean in perfect biathlon conditions in front of a raucous home crowd.

"It was important to shoot zero; for me it was important because in Antholz I missed the last shot," he said.

"Today I hit it and could run my own race."

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


Related stories
February 2015: Relay victories for Norway and Russia at biathlon World Cup
January 2015: Norway seal second consecutive Biathlon World Cup relay win in Antholz
January 2015: Formidable duo Schempp and Domracheva both seal hat-trick of victories at biathlon World Cup
January 2015: Imperious Domracheva claims second successive IBU World Cup victory
January 2015: Schempp sprints to second straight IBU Biathlon World Cup win in Antholz