Eckhoff sprints to fifth World Cup gold

Tiril Eckhoff was made to work for her fifth IBU World Cup gold of the season as she outsprinted compatriot Marte Olsbu Roiseland to claim pursuit victory in Oberhof.

The Norwegian started in front of the field after sprint success on Friday and led throughout the 10km race, pipping her team-mate to top spot by five seconds.

Eckhoff, victorious despite taking two penalty loops due to misses on the range, remains second to Roiseland in the race for the yellow jersey.

"I think I had to make a mistake on the last shoot just to make it exciting!" joked the 30-year-old.

"My tactic was to take it a little bit easier. I was hoping Marte would take a little bit of the ride, because I went the whole race by myself today. But Marte would not go so we just had a really good fight.

"I am really happy and especially when I take Marte in a sprint, I am really happy!"

Eckhoff held a 50-second lead at the 3.4km split, but missed the fifth and final shot in her second visit to the range.

Austria's Lisa Hauser and Roiseland gave chase and the World Cup leader was in touch with Eckhoff after she missed in the second prone stage.

But the five-time Olympic medallist kept control in the final 2km and pulled clear of Roiseland, who shot clean, in the final metres.

Roiseland said: "I am so happy with my shooting today. I think it's a really long time since I hit 20 out of 20, many years now. I think it was a perfect race."

Hauser, who won her first World Cup medal in Friday's sprint, did it again - 43 seconds behind the leaders and 28 ahead of Russia's Svetlana Mironova.

Sportsbeat 2021