The World Cup leader has been unbeaten to date in sprint this season and he ensured the run continued with a fine performance at the Vysočina Arena.

Held under floodlights at the Nove Mesto venue, Bø shot clean to boost his chances of success.

This, coupled with his speed over the snow, saw the Norwegian earn a dominant victory in a time of 23min 9.9sec.

He was followed by Alexander Loginov, who also shot clean throughout the competition to secure a career-best result.

The Russian biathlete ended 21 seconds off the pace of the winner.

Sweden’s Martin Ponsiluoma was also left celebrating, after he secured a maiden podium finish at a World Cup event.

A strong performance, which included him shooting clean, saw him finish 54 seconds behind Bø to round off the top three.

The first evening competition of the new season had seen a strong standard of shooting under the floodlights.

All but one of the top 25 finishers shot clean or had received just a single penalty in the competition.

The women's 7.5km sprint is due to take place tomorrow.

Both the men’s and women’s pursuits go ahead on Saturday (December 22).

The competition will then end with both mass start races on Sunday (December 23).