France's Martin Fourcade wins eighth World Cup biathlon event

France's Martin Fourcade continued his domination of the biathlon circuit with his win on Saturday.

Mikhail Metzel/AP

SOCHI, Russia (AP) Martin Fourcade of France claimed his eighth biathlon World Cup victory of the season Saturday by winning the 10-kilometer sprint race on the Sochi Olympic course.

Fourcade retained the overall World Cup title by winning the individual race on Thursday and tied his number of victories from last season.

In the women's race, Polish veteran Magdalena Gwizdon edged Olympic champion Anastasiya Kuzmina to win the 7.5K sprint for her first victory in six years.

Fourcade dominated the race from the start and clocked 25 minutes, 17.3 seconds to beat Yevgeny Ustyugov of Russia by 42.3 seconds. Henrik L'Abee-Lund of Norway shot cleanly but finished third, 51.0 seconds behind Fourcade.

Fourcade also clinched the sprint title with his second win and sixth podium finish in the discipline this season. He won the individual title on Thursday and has a chance to claim all four discipline titles.

Gwizdon, who claimed her only previous World Cup victory by winning a sprint race in Ostersund, Sweden, in 2006, combined fast skiing and accurate shooting to clock 25:28.7 in heavy snowfall.

Kuzmina missed one target to finish 10.2 seconds behind.

Overall World Cup winner Tora Berger of Norway also missed a target and was 3.5 seconds behind Kuzmina for her 10th consecutive podium finish and 18th of the season.

The podium finish was enough for Berger to secure her third discipline title this season.