Whistler, Canada - World Champion Helena Jonsson on Friday won the women's 7.5 kilometre biathlon World Cup sprint event in the Canadian venue of Whistler.

Competing at the venue of next year's winter Olympics Jonsson had a perfect record in the shooting range, finishing without a miss and winning in a time of 19 minutes 43.6 seconds.

Germany's six-time world champion Magdalena Neuner, who missed the target once, was second 0.7 seconds behind, while Russian Olga Zaitseva, who won two gold medals at the recent world championships, finished third 1.6 seconds behind.

She too managed to hit all her targets.

Jonsson's victory saw her take over the yellow jersey of the overall World Cup leader from German Kati Wilhelm, who finished eighth on the day.

The Swede has 780 points, while Wilhelm is on 764. Neuner is third on 723 points.

A men's 10km biathlon World Cup sprint will be held later Friday. (dpa)