After the first two days of the fourth event in this year's IBU World Cup Biathlon, Germany's team had nothing to show their home crowd in the central German city of Oberhof. Two fourth-place finishes, in both the men's and women's Relay events, had the stench of a home-field let down. And then there was the weekend. From Friday till the event's conclusion on January 8, gold medals were awarded to only one country – the one in which they were skiing and shooting.

Enlarge image Andreas Birnbacher celebrates his first World Cup gold of 2012 (© picture-alliance/dpa) In three days, Germany's Magdalena Neuner won two events, earning gold medals in the Sprint on January 6 as well as in the Mass Start on Sunday. Andrea Henkel added a bronze in the latter event, giving Germany two-thirds of Sunday's medal stand. For the men, Arnd Peiffer took the Sprint on Saturday and Andreas Birnbacher finished first in the Mass Start the day after.

“It was great here … [on] my last run in Oberhof to land a victory,” said Magdalena Neuner after her win in the Mass Start. In the video, from biathlonworld.com, Neuner said that she felt “on the ball” while skiing around the track at Oberhof. The 24-year-old, who announced her retirement at the end of this season, despite being fast on her skis, put her chances in doubt with shaky shooting, racking up three penalties for missing targets.

Neuner was asked if her skewed shooting, which added penalty laps to her race, caused her to doubt. “Absolutely not,” she said. And for anyone who witnessed the home stretch of the race, Neuner's post-race confidence was not manufactured after her success. Neuner exhibited assurance as she coolly distanced herself from second-place finisher Tora Berger of Norway to claim the finish line. To sweeten her success, Neuner needed only glance to her left on the podium, where team mate Andrea Henkel stood on the spot for third place.

On the men's side, Arnd Peiffer delivered gold on Saturday after clawing his way back from a 2.1-second deficit with just 600 meters remaining to beat France's Simon Fourcade by a mere 1.1 seconds.

Enlarge image Arnd Peiffer relishing his victory in the Sprint (© picture-alliance/dpa) The next day, Peiffer's team mate Andreas Birnbacher shot cleanly in four tries and skied fast over the 15 kilometres of the Mass Start to claim the event by 24.3 seconds over France's Simon Fourcade and 29.6 seconds ahead of Emil Hegle Svendsen of Norway. Birnbacher surprised himself in victory, saying that he “had absolutely no idea how it happened,” according to Sport1. “I actually felt bad today,” he added.

Bad or not, Birnbacher's first-place finish pushes him up to fourth in the season-long World Cup points race. On the women's half of the World Cup ledger, it is no surprise that Magdalena Neuner currently looks down from her throne with 456 points.