Neuner closes season with win to secure World Cup title

DOUBLE Olympic champion Magdalena Neuner sealed her second biathlon overall World Cup title with an emphatic victory in the final race of the season in Khanty-Mansiysk.

RED AND YELLOW JERSEYS: Magdalena Neuner seals the overall World Cup title with victory in the final race of the season in Russia (Getty Images)

With the top 30 in the World Cup standings taking part in the 12.5km mass start race, Neuner immediately raced clear of the field in Russia, establishing a 20.5 seconds gap after two flawless prone shoots.

And while two mistakes in her third visit to the range saw Slovakia's Olympic sprint champion Anastasiya Kuzmina briefly assume the lead, Neuner stormed back to win in 36:20 minutes.

German compatriot Simone Hauswald was the only one who could prevent Neuner recapturing the overall crystal globe she won as a 21-year old two seasons ago.

But having beaten Neuner to the sprint World Cup title on Thursday, Hauswald couldn't compete with her younger teammate in the mass start, finishing more than two minutes off the pace in 18th.

Instead, French biathlete Sandrine Bailly was Neuner's nearest rival in Russia and brought the curtain down on her career with silver.

But despite making one error to the German's three, Bailly finished 17.2 secs behind with Kuzmina collecting her fourth podium finish of the season another 6.4 behind.

Germany's seven-time Olympic medallist Kati Wilhelm impressed to finish sixth and while her and Hauswald's imminent retirement will be a loss for the sport, Neuner's impressive season suggests the future of German biathlon is in safe hands.