SEEFELD, Jan 15 - Fangming CHENG (CHN) won the Men's Biathlon 7.5 km Sprint Gold medal to spark jubilant scenes of celebration amongst his supporters on Sunday.

It is his nation's first Gold medal on the snow at the Innsbruck 2012 Winter Youth Olympic Games and, speaking after the race, CHENG's visible excitement was matched by boisterous cheering and celebration by Chinese team officials.

"I won this to honour my country," he said. "I am very excited, as this is the first Gold medal for China on snow at these Games."

CHENG, who had only skied Cross Country for one year before becoming a professional Biathlete in 2008, missed only one standing shot, then went on to overtake several competitors on the final lap of the race to finish with a time of 19 minutes, 21.7 seconds.

A surprised Rene ZAHKNA (EST) finished in a time of 19:43 to secure Silver.

"I never expected this," ZAHKNA said. "Never in my mind. I was hoping for a top-10 finish, but there'll be no celebration tonight as I have three more competitions at these Games, and this was a very hard race."

ZAHKNA took up Biathlon at the age of 12, but revealed he had started shooting some time before that, thanks to the influence of his father Hillar ZAHKNA, who was head coach of Estonia's Biathlon team for 10 years.

France's Aristide BEGUE claimed the Bronze medal with a time of 19:48.5, in what was his first international competition.

BEGUE will compete in the Men's 10 km Pursuit on Monday, but revealed the pressure is now off him after claiming Bronze.

"We'll see about the (Men's 10 km) Pursuit tomorrow," he said. "It is just for pleasure after today."

Canada's Stuart HARDEN finished fifth and Norwegian Kristian Andre AALERUD came sixth.

The Men's 10 km Pursuit starts at 14:30 at Seefeld Arena on Monday, January 16.

YIS gb/ic/sco/rm