Action from the Al Khor-El Jaish match in the Qatar Basketball League yesterday. At bottom, a shot from the Al Rayyan-Al Arabi match.


DPA/Ostersund, Sweden


Finland’s Kaisa Makarainen produced a brilliant finale to snatch victory in the women’s biathlon World Cup pursuit Sunday while France’s Martin Fourcade won the men’s event.
Makarainen started 10th, 0.52 seconds behind Czech Gabriela Soukalova, but worked her way through the field to win the 10km race in 30 minutes 45.1 seconds which included two penalty loops.
Italy’s Dorothea Wierer was second, with one miss, 1.9 seconds behind while Germany’s Franziska Hildebrand shot perfectly to finish third, 3.3 seconds adrift.
Hildebrand began the day in 17th but round after round of clean shooting saw her lead when leaving the range for the last time.  However, she could not match the skiing power of Makarainen, overall champion in 2014, who went on to claim the 16th victory of her career.
“I felt really good this morning; I knew I needed few races to get ready since I am an old girl,” Makarainen said. “I hope that I will be faster; I trained right up to Ostersund because I lost some days due to sickness earlier in November.”
Soukalova, who missed twice, finished fifth to retain the overall lead on 140 points, ahead of Wierer and France’s Marie Dorin Habert (both 135).
Earlier Fourcade saw his starting lead cut but nonetheless held on to claim a comfortable victory.
The four-time reigning World Cup champion started the 12.5km race with a 52-second advantage over Germany’s Arnd Peiffer from Saturday’s sprints and eventually won in 31 minutes 22.4 seconds.
Fourcade went clean only once from four shooting rounds but despite three penalty loops triumphed 35.1 seconds ahead of Peiffer, who had just one miss. Another Frenchman, Quentin Fillon Maillet, was third having also missed once.
“It was not easy, it was a competition against me,” Fourcade said. “I am happy that I have done this before and have that experience, because it is not easy to do this.
“I felt good on ski and shooting range; it was small mistakes when I missed those shots. After the first prone, I was confident.”
Norwegian veteran Ole Einar Bjoerndalen started third but had a day to forget as five shooting misses dropped him to 11th.
Fourcade now leads the overall standings on 140 points with Bjoerndalen on 138 and Fillon Maillet 134.
The next biathlon World Cup events take place December 11-13 in Hochfilzen, Austria.