Norway's Johannes Dale-Skjevdal claimed victory in the 12.5 km pursuit at the Biathlon World Cup in the German winter sports hub of Ruhpolding. The Norwegian incurred just one penalty in his third shooting stage, clocking the fastest time of 30:29.9 minutes.
The winner finished 4.9 seconds ahead of France's Éric Perrot, who secured second place despite making three errors on the shooting range.
The final spot on the podium went to Sweden's Martin Ponsiluoma, who crossed the finish line 7.5 seconds behind Dale-Skjevdal, accumulating a total of four shooting misses.
Rounding out the top five were Frenchman Fabien Claude and Italy's Tommaso Giacomel.
Bulgaria's Blagoy Todev finished 42nd out of 60 competitors. Despite solid shooting with only two penalties – one in the first and one in the third stage – he ended up 1:53.4 behind Dale-Skjevdal.
In the overall World Cup standings after 12 of 21 races this season, Italy's Tommaso Giacomel leads with 736 points, followed by today's runner-up Éric Perrot with 654 points. Sweden's Sebastian Samuelsson sits in third with 640 points. Today's victor, Johannes Dale-Skjevdal, climbed to fifth position with 501 points. The highest-ranked Bulgarian is Vladimir Iliev, who is 52nd with 39 points.
The Biathlon World Cup circuit continues in Nové Město, Czech Republic, from January 22nd to 25th. This will be the final stage before the Olympic Games in Italy, which are set to commence on February 6th.