OBERHOF, Germany - Miriam Goessner of Germany overcame two missed shots to win the women's 7.5-kilometre sprint at a biathlon World Cup on Saturday.
Goessner nearly wasted a massive lead over Tora Berger when she missed her shots at the standing stage, but held on to beat the Norwegian by two seconds.
Goessner finished in 21 minutes, 17.2 seconds for her second career World Cup win.
"I was not so confident after the two missed targets," Goessner said. "I went to the penalty loop thinking maybe I could fight for a top five. But I tried to run fast on the last loop and it worked."
Germany's Andrea Henkel was third after shooting cleanly, 24.1 seconds back.
With 17 events remaining, Berger leads the standings on 442 points, but Goessner moved to second on 346, while Henkel was third on 320.
Dmitry Malyshko led a Russian 1-2 in the men's 10K sprint, beating Evgeniy Garanichev by 12.6 seconds for his first career World Cup win.
Malyshko overcame one missed penalty in difficult conditions to finish in 25:07.9.
Garanichev and third-place Emil Hegle Svendsen of Norway also both missed one target.
Fourth-place Alexis Boeuf of France was among the few skiers to shoot cleanly, as a strong wind and light rain cut across the shooting range.
Martin Fourcade could manage only 16th but the Frenchman still led the overall standings after nine events with 417 points, ahead of Svendsen on 355 and Russia's Evgeny Ustyugov on 326.
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