Back-to-back baby

Neuner - making her first appearance at a seniors world championships after winning five junior world titles - overcame four misses to hold off strong challenges from Norway's Linda Grubben and Sweden's Anna Carin Olofsson.

Grubben, who climbed from 18th to second in Saturday's sprint, won the silver medal steaming past Olofsson in the final 100 metres after trailing the entire race.

Olofsson was plagued by five missed shots, while Grubben only missed one on the day to cross the finish-line just 7.1 seconds behind Neuner.

Russia's Natalia Guseva fought hard to nearly catch Grubben - the winner of two pursuits on the World Cup circuit this season - toward the finish, but lost pace in the last gasp to finish fourth overall with one miss in each of her first two shoots.

Neuner was once again in a class above the rest, however, destroying all of her rivals ski-times save for the former cross-country skier Olofsson.

The junior world champion in the discipline has impressed in her first full season on the World Cup circuit with two sprint victories and a third-place finish at Oberhof's pursuit.

She has effectively saved the world championships for biathlon-mad Germany, earning their only two medals in four events thus far.

The German men - who dominated the Turin Olympics last year - have been especially disappointing, failing to crack the top-nine for the second-straight day in Sunday's pursuit.

Defending World Cup champion Kati Wilhelm, who cedes the pursuit world title to her younger compatriot, was the next-best German after Neuner finishing 8th with Andrea Henkel closely behind in 10th.

Tadeja Brankovic again impressed for Slovenia moving up from eighth to fifth, while France's Olympic sprint champion Florence Bavarel-Robert moved all the way from 21st into sixth.

Italy's Michela Ponza was the best finisher for the hosts claiming seventh.