A spectacular afternoon with no wind blue skies and a great snow-filled background greeted the women.

The first prone saw 15 women clean prone led by Germany's Vanessa Hinz; Domracheva and Mäkäräinen both had single penalties and were in the middle of the field. By the second prone, both had moved into the lead group. With clean second prone stages, the two led the field into the standing stages.

Two Penalties

In the first standing, each had two more penalties and fell back, with Glazyrina taking a 10 second lead over Bescond and teammate Dorin Habert. At this stage, the only woman with three clean stages was Gregorin in sixth position.

Fast Skiing and Clean Stage

Coming again from 20 seconds back, the Belarusian showed her skiing prowess and flew past the field to set up on position 1 several seconds ahead of her rivals. With a determined precision, the five targets fell and again she was headed for victory. Bescond and left 9 seconds back with Preuss another 4 seconds back; Vitkova, Semerenko and Nowakowska Ziemniak just behind. This group would fight for the other two podium spots. Preuss moved up as did Vitkova to take the final award spots.

Of Dreams

Domracheva commented on her first standing where she had another setback penalty. "The third shooting was not one of my dreams. I was quite confident, but ...Still, I was not that far back and I know that the last shooting stage often decides the results."

After two mass start wins in a row, she said, "I like the mass start, the head-to-head battle, just like in the pursuit. But I also like the sprint and individual where you have to fight against yourself."

Total Score

Preuss with her first World Cup podium and a personal best result said, "The fans and competing in my home stadium were big motivation today...My big goal for the season is to finish in the Top 15 in the World Cup Total Score."

Ran Fast

Vitkova, with a big push after the last standing stage commented on her big move to the podium, "I had not tact