 The Canadian Press Vancouver 2010
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Svendsen wins maiden World Cup overall title; Neuner takes women's crown
KHANTY-MANSIYSK, Russia - Olympic champion Emil Hegle Svendsen of Norway won his first overall World Cup biathlon title Saturday while German Olympic champion Magdalena Neuner won the second of her career.
Svendsen went into the season-closing men's 15-kilometre mass start race tied with Austria's Christoph Sumann in the overall standings.
Svendsen was leading until he missed two targets on the last shooting range and dropped 46.5 seconds. He finished in 14th place, one minute 12.8 seconds behind the winner, Dominik Landertinger of Austria.
Jean-Philippe Le Guellec of Shannon, Que., was 27th.
Summan missed four targets and came in 23rd to leave Svendsen on top of the overall standings with 828 points. Summan was second with 813 while Russia's Ivan Tcherezov was third with 782.
Svendsen made nine World Cup podium appearances this season and posted five victories.
Landertinger, the world mass start champion, overcame one penalty loop to win the race in 38:19.8, for his first win of the season. Arnd Peiffer of Germany and Norwegian veteran Halvard Hanevold both shot clean to finish second and third, 3.6 and 11.2 seconds back, respectively.
Russia's Evgeny Ustyugov won the mass start discipline title with 197 points. Svendsen finished second with 163 points, followed by Peiffer with 161.
Neuner, who added to Olympic titles in the pursuit and the mass start, overcame three penalty loops to win the women's 12.5-kilometre mass start race in 36:20.0.
Neuner, the 2008 champion, won five races and had 13 podium finishes to end with 933 points from 25 races. Her teammate Simone Hauswald, who was 33 points behind in the overall standings and 29 points ahead of Neuner in the discipline, missed seven targets and finished a distant 18th to stay second in both standings with 854 and 198 points, respectively.
Sandrine Bailly of France, who is planning to retire from the sport, missed one target and finished second, 17.2 seconds behind. Olympic sprint champion Anastasiya Kuzmina of Slovakia also ran a penalty loop and was a further 6.4 seconds back in third.
Zina Kocher of Red Deer, Alta., was 30th.
Helena Jonsson of Sweden, the 2009 champion, was third overall with 813, while Andrea Henkel of Germany had 169 points for third in the discipline.
Sunday's mixed relay will wrap up the season-closing event.
