February 28, 2007 at the Shirahatayama Open Stadium. Pietro Piller Cottrer of Italy was the defending champion. Biathlete Lars Berger, with three World Championship medals in men's biathlon (including a silver medal at the most recent championships in the 4 x 7.5 km relay at Rasen-Antholz), started early and went through half the race before snow started to fill the tracks. This would prove advantegous when the third of the 121 starters, Leanid Karneyenka, with no World Cup starts and a previous best of 16th from the World Junior Championships, won silver, Belarus' first medal at the World Championships. Angerer, the World Cup leader, earned his second medal at the championships with a bronze. Berger is the first person to win medals in both the biathlon and nordic skiing world championships in the same year. Austria's Johannes Eder originally finished fourth in this event, but was disqualified on November 22, 2007 after the FIS issued a two-year doping suspension in the wake of Eder's action during the Winter Olympics in Turin the previous year. Eder had appealed the initial ban in 2006 only to have the FIS reinstate the ban the following year.