Whistler, British Columbia - World champion Helena Jonsson won the women's 7.5-kilometre biathlon World Cup sprint event Friday in Whistler, British Columbia.

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.

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

Zaitseva, 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 Friday, 23 seconds off the pace.

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

In the men's 10-kilometre biathlon World Cup sprint later Friday, Norway captured the top two spots, with the first non-Norwegian finishing nearly 40 seconds off the winning pace on the future Olympic course.

Lars Berger won in a time of 24 minutes, 6.5 seconds, with perfect shooting. Ole Einar Bjoerndalen hit all targets and was 14.1 seconds behind.

Austrian Christoph Sumann had no misses but was 39.5 seconds back in third place. In all, 11 competitors were perfect on the shooting range.

World Cup leader Tomasz Sikora of Poland finished in 1:19.4 behind in 15th place. Bjoerndalen's second-place finish pulled him within two points of Sikora, whose 652 points keep him atop the World Cup standings with six events to go in the season. (dpa)