Pyeongchang, South Korea  - Ole Einar Bjoerndalen won his third gold medal at the biathlon world championships with victory in the 20-kilometre individual race in Pyeongchang on Tuesday.

The 35-year-old Norwegian crossed the line 14.1 seconds ahead of Christoph Stephan of Germany, with Jakov Fak of Croatia clinching bronze.

Bjoerndalen, already the most successful biathlete in the history of the world championships, now has a record 87 World Cup wins in ski sport, one more than Sweden's Ingemar Stenmark in alpine skiing.

Despite three penalties he secured victory in 52 minutes 28 seconds, with Stephan and Fak, who was 17.1 seconds back, both with an error on the shooting range.

"I'm just pleased I managed to get a medal after the three misses. I didn't expect it any more and had a lot of luck," Bjoerndalen said.

Bjoerndalen's title follows sprint and pursuit victories at the weekend and takes to 13 his career tally of world championship titles.

Simon Fourcade of France was fourth, and Sweden's David Ekholm fifth, while overall World Cup leader Tomasz Sikora of Poland finished ninth. (dpa)