Germany enjoyed a comfortable victory in the World Championship mixed relay in Ostersund.

The quartet of Sabrina Buchholz, Magdalena Neuner, Andreas Birnbacher and Michael Greis came home 52.6 seconds ahead of shock silver medalists Belarus with Russia third, a further 10.3 seconds back.

In the absence of Andrea Henkel and Kati Wilhelm, Buchholz produced a solid opening leg to finish fourth before Neuner - a triple gold winner last year in Antholz - established a 55 second lead with a storming second leg.

Birnbacher missed three shots but maintained a healthy advantage before defending World Cup overall champion Greis saw his country home with just one mistake at the range.

Germany had previously only won a single bronze in the three previous editions of this fledgling event.

Belarus do not have a single competitor in the top 30 in the World Cup standings but only missed four of their 32 shots to hold off Russia.

The 2005 and 2006 winners were without Ekaterina Iourieva but were still in second before an uncharacteristic blip at the range from Nikolay Kruglov, who had to ensure a penalty loop on the third leg, saw them drop to seventh, leaving Dmitri Iarochenko with too much work.

Sweden had an unchanged line-up from the team that won gold 12 months ago but Anna Carin Olofsson, who is four months pregnant, struggled on the second 6km leg as the hosts slumped from second to ninth and despite the superb efforts of Björn Ferry and Carl Johan Bergman, the hosts just missed out on the medals.

Traditional powerhouses France and Norway left out their top athletes - Sandrine Bailly/Vincent Defrasne and Tora Berger/Ole Einar Bjoerndalen respectively - and had to settle for seventh and eighth respectively.

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Lee Walker / Eurosport