KONTIOLAHTI, Finland -- Valj Semerenko of Ukraine and Jakob Fak of Slovenia and won the women's and men's mass-start races Sunday on the final day of the biathlon world championships.
In the women's 12.5-kilometre event Semerenko shot cleanly to earn her first individual world title.
Semerenko finished in 34:32.9 to beat Franziska Preuss of Germany by 6.2 seconds. Karin Oberhofer of Italy took bronze, 12.6 seconds back.
Megan Heinicke of Prince George, the only Canadian to qualify, missed one in her first round of shooting and finished 24th in 36:55.1.
Darya Domracheva of Belarus led for much of the race but missed two targets at the third shooting station and finished fourth. Preuss was level with Semerenko going into the final shoot but missed one target to fall behind.
Fak won the men's 15-kilometre event after holding off Ondrej Moravec of the Czech Republic and Tarjei Boe of Norway in the final sprint to win in 36 minutes, 24.9 seconds. Moravec took silver, 1 second behind, and Boe was 3.7 seconds back in third.
All three medallists missed one target. For Boe, it was his fifth medal in six starts at the worlds.
All-time great Ole Einar Bjoerndalen of Norway was the only man to hit all 20 targets but finished fourth, 10.2 seconds back.
Brendan Green, of Hay River, N.W.T., was 21st. The 28-year-old missed one target in his final round to post a time of 37:33.2. Calgary's Nathan Smith was 23rd in 37:44.3.
