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Martin Fourcade retains biathlon overall World Cup title; Domracheva wins women's 15k race
World Cup biathlon leader Tora Berger of Norway competes during the women's 15 km individual at the Laura biathlon stadium in the Olympic mountain cluster during the IBU World Cup Biathlon in Sochi, Russia, Thursday, March 7, 2013. (AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel)
SOCHI, Russia - Martin Fourcade of France claimed his second straight biathlon World Cup overall title Thursday by winning the men's 20-kilometre individual race on the Sochi Olympic course.
Earlier, Darya Domracheva of Belarus overcame two penalty minutes to claim her second victory this season by winning the women's 15-kilometre event.
Fourcade clocked 49 minutes, 40.6 seconds as he overcame one penalty minute to edge Andreas Birnbacher of Germany, who shot cleanly, by 6.9 seconds at the finish line. Serhiy Semenov of Ukraine was 31.9 seconds back for third.
Fourcade was leading the race from at the start but missed a target at the first shooting range to drop 54.7 seconds behind the German. He then produced a combination of perfect shooting skills and fast skiing to turn the race around — taking a lead of 3.4 seconds with 1.2 kilometres to go.
Fourcade, who won all three individual races this season, including the gold medal at the world championships in February, also claimed the discipline World Cup title.
The Frenchman leads the overall World Cup standings with 1,072 points after seven victories and eight other podium finishes this season.
Emil Hegle Svendsen of Norway, who is skipping the event because of illness, has 751 points for second with only four races left. Slovenia's Jakov Fak is third with 668.
Domracheva, who missed two targets at the fourth shooting range, clocked 45 minutes, 45.2 seconds.
Russia's Olga Zaitseva shot clean but could not challenge Domracheva's pace and was 34.6 seconds behind for second. Tora Berger of Norway, the Olympic and world champion who claimed her first overall World Cup title last weekend, missed one target and was 46.8 second behind for third.
Berger dominated the two previous individual races this season and won the discipline World Cup title.
The World Cup continues with sprint races on Saturday.
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