Norwegian Ole Einar Bjoerndalen shot clear to win the Khanty-Mansysk sprint from compatriot Emile Svendsen, while German Magdalena Neuner won the women's sprint despite missing one shot at the second range.

Bjoerndalen extended his overall World Cup lead with his seventh triumph of the season.

The 34-year-old five-time Olympic champion, who finished behind Svendsen in the world championships mass start two weeks ago but won gold in the pursuit, powered his way across the line ten seconds faster than his second-placed compatriot.

Svendsen, winner of last week's Pyeong Chang sprint, shot clear as well but could not match Bjoerndalen in the final three kilometres of racing.

Russian Andrej Makoveev claimed third-place at 32.5 seconds behind Bjoerndalen to bump Ondrej Marovec off of the podium despite the Czech's perfect shoot.

Russians Dmitri Iarashenko, second in the World Cup standings coming into Thursday's race, stayed in the hunt for the title with a fifth place showing, while Svendsen's second-place finish allowed him to overtake Maxim Tchoudov at third in the overall rankings.

Defending champion Michael Greis, however, dropped out of contention to retain his crown with just five races left to go.

In the women's World Cup battle Neuner's victory allowed her to close the gap on Frenchwoman and overall leader Sandrine Bailly, who finished second in Thursday's sprint at 10.1 seconds behind the German despite shooting clear.

Russian Albina Akhatova rounded out the podium finishing 16 seconds behind Neuner with her own clear shoot.

German Kathrin Hitzer finished fourth, while Andrea Henkel stayed in the hunt to defend her World Cup title by finishing fifth.

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Jeremy Stahl / Eurosport