Vincent Defrasne of France and Martina Glagow of Germany both shot clean to win the men's and women's World Cup biathlon openers Thursday in Kontiolahti, Finland.

Defrasne, an Olympic gold medallist in the 12.5 kilometre pursuit last year, won the 20 km event in 51 minutes 25.2 seconds. Veteran Halvard Hanevold of Norway was runner-up, 23.6 seconds behind, after one miss while Maxim Tchoudov of Russia also missed one target and finished third, 30.2 seconds behind.

Robin Clegg of Ottawa was the top Canadian, in 43rd, 4:28.7 off the pace. Jean-Philippe LeGuellec of Shannon, Que., was 81st, 6:32.4 back, while Scott Perras of Regina was 104th, 9:17.7 behind.

Glagow beat Russian Tatiana Moiseeva by 6.7 seconds in the women's 15 km. She had a clean sheet in shooting at 20 targets and finished in 46:28.8 for her 11th World Cup individual victory.

Simone Denkinger of Germany had two misses and was 1:02.7 behind in third place.

Sandra Keith of Calgary was 57th, 6:08.6 off the pace, while Megan Imrie of Falcon Lake, Man., took 67th place, 7:29.2 back.

The 28-year-old Glagow, a triple silver medallist at the Turin Olympics, won the World Cup overall title in 2003.

Kati Wilhelm, the defending overall champion from Germany, finished 21st after missing four targets.