PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — Ole Einar Bjorndalen of Norway and Kati Wilhelm of Germany won biathlon events at the world championships today.

Bjorndalen led a Norwegian sweep in the 10-kilometer sprint. He misses two targets but still won his 11th world title in 24 minutes, 16.5 seconds. He edged teammate Lars Berger by 1.2 seconds. Hanevold Halvard was third.

"The goal for us was to have one medal," Bjorndalen said. "It's really cool. But I'm much more happy about winning today, because it's more important for me to win with this team."

Wilhelm shot cleanly and finished the 7K race in 21:11.1, 9.9 seconds ahead of teammate Simone Hauswald, who also hit all targets. Olga Zaitseva of Russia was third.

The 32-year-old Wilhelm cried on the podium after securing her first individual world championships gold in eight years.

"It was a long time and I worked hard to come back on the podium in the world champs," she said.

Defending world champion Yekaterina Iourieva and her Russian teammates Albina Akhatova and Dmitri Yaroshenko were barred from the championships after testing positive for banned substances, the International Biathlon Union said Friday.

They face possible two-year bans that could rule them out of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

"It is a really very difficult situation and, of course, I'm also concerned about having it in our team," Zaitseva said. "I cannot support my colleagues, but I cannot judge them either."