HOCHFILZEN, Austria - Gabriela Koukalova won the women's sprint Friday, earning the first gold medal for a Czech biathlete in an individual race at the world biathlon championships.
Koukalova hit all 10 targets and finished in 19 minutes 12.6 seconds to beat Laura Dahlmeier of Germany by four seconds. Anais Chevalier of France finished 25.1 behind to take bronze.
Koukalova, the defending overall World Cup champion who previously competed under her maiden name Soukalova, won her sixth medal at major championships, including two silvers at the 2014 Sochi Olympics and a gold with the Czech mixed relay team at the worlds two years ago.
Rosanna Crawford of Canmore, Alta., was the top Canadian, finishing 26th, 1:23.2 off the winning pace, with one penalty loop.
Megan Tandy of Prince George placed 64th (2:20.9 behind Koukalova), while Julia Ransom of Kelowna was 65th (2:24.7). Tandy had to ski one penalty loop and Ransom had two. They both missed the top-60 cut and failed to qualify for today's 10-kilometre pursuit.
In other Canadian results, Emma Lunder of Vernon was 84th.
Koukalova won the overall title last season but failed to win a medal at the worlds in Oslo.
This week, her preparations were hampered when she had to leave the team's training camp in Italy to have a splinter removed that caused an inflammation to her right hand.
Dahlmeier, the overall World Cup leader, earned her second medal after winning the mixed relay with the German team in Thursday's opening race of the championships.
While Koukalova and Dahlmeier were flawless in Friday's 7.5km sprint, other pre-race favourites struggled on the shooting range.
Marie Dorin Habert, the 2015 sprint champion who won silver with France in the mixed relay, skied one penalty loop and finished 42.8 behind in seventh.
Kaisa Makarainen, the Finnish leader of the World Cup discipline standings, lost her sight on a medal after missing two targets in her prone shooting. She finished 56.5 seconds behind in 12th, one spot ahead of last year's world champion, Tiril Eckhoff of Norway, who also missed two targets.
Hours before the race, the International Biathlon Union provisionally suspended Ekaterina Glazyrina of Russia on suspicion of doping, based on findings by World Anti-Doping Agency investigator Richard McLaren. He accused Russia's national anti-doping agency and a drug-testing lab of covering up hundreds of failed tests.
Today's 10km men's sprint includes four Canadians - Scott and Christian Gow of Calgary, Brendan Green of Hay River, N.W.T., and Macx Davies of Canmore.
Glazyrina was replaced by Russian teammate Irina Uslugina, who finished 15th.
