Ole Einar Bjoerndalen and Sandrine Bailly took the pursuit victories at Hochfilzen in Austria.

MEN'S RACE

Ole Einar Bjoerndalen overcame a dismal shooting display to claim victory in the 12.5km pursuit.

The Norwegian missed five shots, including three on the final standing shoot, but managed to overhaul the equally wayward Dmitri Yaroshenko.

The Russian started with a 38-second advantage after winning Friday's sprint, but the legendary Bjoerndalen's speed over the snow ensured he was soon on his rival's tail.

Both skiers missed two shots in their opening three visits to the range, and arrived for the final shoot almost in unison.

Nerves gripped both men, as they sprayed bullets wildly, hitting just two of five targets apiece. The usually reliable Yaroshenko will be particularly distraught at missing a golden opportunity to claim victory.

But Bjoerndalen eased clear over the final section as a dispirited Yaroshenko trailed in 28 seconds adrift. Both men have now been on the podium four times in five World Cup races.

Despite the leaders' woes, the pack were unable to capitalise, with Daniel Graf third over a minute back, just ahead of Halvard Hanevold and Carl Johan Bergman.

Bjoerndalen moves on to 194 World Cup points, a lead of nine over Yaroshenko, with Ivan Tcherezov the best of the rest on 159.

WOMEN'S RACE

Sandrine Bailly produced another classy performance to take the women's 10km pursuit and with it take the yellow bib for the leader of the overall World Cup standings.

Starting 18.8 seconds ahead of Russia's Ekaterina Iourieva after winning the sprint on Friday, the Frenchwoman shot 19 for 19 before missing her very last shot of the event.

However, by that stage she had already had the victory well and truly wrapped up after Iourieva's chances of victory disappeared at the first standing shoot.

The Russian had only missed one shot coming into the third shoot and was just 27 seconds behind Bailly, but she then proceeded to miss three shots which saw her slip down the rankings.

However, Iourieva did produce a fantastic skiing performance to still finish in second place, 31.4 seconds behind Bailly's time of 31:37.7.

Kati Wilhelm only missed one shot all day, on the very first range, but she eventually ran out of gas and couldn't improve on her start position of third.

Super-fast skier Magdalena Neuner produced a better performance with the gun, missing just two shots, which was enough to see her move up from 12th to fourth.

Martina Glagow, who went into the race as the World Cup leader, also had two misses, which saw her jump from 17th up to fifth but that wasn't enough for her to hold onto her World Cup lead.

She now has 194 points which leaves her four points behind Bailly.

Alex Chick & Seán Fay / Eurosport