LEAD: Germany in charge in Oberhof as Neuner, Birnbacher triumph

Jan 8, 2012, 15:52 GMT

Oberhof, Germany - Germany completed a clean sweep of the individual biathlon races before home fans in Oberhof Sunday with another victory for Magdalena Neuner followed by a win for Andreas Birnbacher.

Neuner followed up her sprint win in Oberhof Friday by claiming the mass start race before jubilant home fans at the venue Sunday.

A crowd of around 25,000 saw Neuner finish the 12.5km race strongly to overtake Tora Berger of Norway who trailed in 12.5 seconds behind.

Double Olympic champion Neuner could afford three penalty loops, finishing in 40 minutes 2.2 seconds for the 28th World Cup win of her career.

The win takes Neuner to 456 points in the overall standings, ahead of Darya Domracheva of Belarus on 417 and Olga Saizeva of Russia on 378.

Birnbacher meanwhile won the men's 15km mass start with a flawless shooting performance for 38:34.6, beating Simon Fourcade of France (one error) by 24.3 seconds and Emil Hegle Svendsen of Norway (three errors) by 29.6.

The win followed a sprint victory Saturday by Arnd Peiffer on Saturday to give Germany all four individual races in Oberhof.

Svendsen continues to lead the World Cup standings, moving to 328 points, ahead of Fourcade on 317 and Norway's Tarjei Boe on 308.