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Svendsen and Domracheva end season on a winning note

Mar 18, 2012, 12:37 GMT

Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia - Norway's Emil Hegle Svendsen and Belarussian Darya Domracheva ended the biathlon World Cup season on a winning note Sunday.

Hegle Svendsen took first place in the men's 15-kilometre mass start race in the Russian venue of Khanty-Mansiysk, while Domracheva won the women's 12.5 km race at the same venue.

Domracheva, who missed three times, won in 39 minutes 1.4 seconds, beating Norwegian Tora Berger by 10 sec. Third place went to Kaisa Makarainen from Finland, who was a further 22.6 sec behind.

Domracheva said it was a very tough race. 'I found it not easy. It was very tiring and now I am looking forward to a break.'

German World Cup winner Manuela Neuner, who was running in her last race, seemed on course to finish her career with a win and was leading after the first two shooting portions.

However, a burn-out in the third shooting portion where she missed four targets, saw her fall behind to finish sixth.

Earlier Svendsen, who missed just twice on the shooting range, won in a time of 43:15.7 min beating Germany's Arnd Peffer into second place, while Russian Anton Shiplun, who also missed twice, took third place.

Peffer, who had four misses, said it was a great way to end the season. 'I am pleased that I managed to finish second again. Even though I missed the target every time, I managed to compensate for that.'

France's Martin Fourcade, who made sure of topping the overall World Cup standings on Saturday when he won a pursuit race, finished outside the top ten.

Svendsen finished second in the overall standings.

German Andreas Birnbacher, who finished fourth, won the small crystal globe for the mass start discipline.

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