Slovenia's Jakov Fak wins biathlon pursuit in Austria

Slovenian biathlete Jakov Fak won a men's World Cup 12.5-kilometre pursuit Saturday for his first career victory.

Fak missed two targets before edging out Dmitry Malyshko of Russia, who had just one penalty, by 0.9 of a second. Defending overall champion Martin Fourcade of France missed three times and was 8.6 behind in third.

Fak and Andreas Birnbacher of Germany led the race, side-by-side going into the final 2.5-kilometre loop. Birnbacher could not keep up with Fak's pace and finished fifth, while Fak narrowly held off a late challenge by Malyshko.

Fourcade remained in the lead of both the pursuit and overall standings.

In the women's 10-kilometre pursuit, Synnoeve Solemdal led Tora Berger for a Norwegian 1-2 finish. It was Solemdal's first top-three position in an individual World Cup event.

Solemdal missed one target and finished 30.4 seconds ahead of Berger, who had two penalties. Kaisa Makarainen of Finland had four shooting mistakes and was 33.3 seconds behind in third.

Berger leads the discipline as well as the overall standings ahead of Darya Domracheva of Belarus, who placed fifth in the pursuit.

The biathlon meet is concluded by a men's and a women's relay event on Sunday.