RUHPOLDING, Germany - Emil Hegle Svendsen surged past Germany's Simon Schempp on the final climb to give Norway a narrow victory in a men's biathlon World Cup relay race on Thursday.

Svendsen trailed Schempp by seven seconds after the German's rapid-fire perfect performance on the last shooting range. The Norwegian had to reload once but caught up with Schempp and burst past to cross the line 4.6 seconds ahead. Norway completed the 4x7.5-kilometre distance in one hour, nine minutes, 42.3 seconds.

Russia finished third, losing a relay race for the first time since winning the gold medal at last year's home Olympics in Sochi. Russia's final racer Anton Shipulin finished 8.4 seconds behind the winners after a strong effort that saw him cut close to 20 seconds off his team's deficit.