6 girls from the national team of the Russian Federation took to the start to storm a 15-kilometer distance and 4 firing lines. Finca Kaisa Makarainen, Slovak Nastya Kuzmina were considered the favorites of the individual race in Slovenia. However, Dorothea Wierer took the lead in the competition. How did the race for our athletes in Pokljuka end?
Individual race start
Dorothea Wierer finished the first stage better than her opponents. After her, Katharina Innerhofer, Persson Lynn, Susan Dunkley were included in the list of pursuers. Other rivals walked well behind them in time.
Russian athlete Ulyana Kaisheva shot at the shooting range without misses, but was 25 seconds behind Dorothea in time.
On prone, the leader changed. The first position was taken by an athlete from Germany Denise Herrman. She beat Wierer by 4.9 seconds.
Struggle for leadership
The following events of the individual race were remembered for the constant change of the leader. The race was headed by Franziska Preuss. However, later the American Dunkley bypassed her. Then, in the course of the race, everything repeated again. The German woman took the lead again. She covered three shooting ranges without a miss. This result allowed her to get ahead of the biathlete from the United States.
Finnish athlete Kaisa Mäkärainen's rifle cartridges missed targets at the first shooting range. She failed to close 4 targets in shooting. Such frankly weak work dramatically reduced the opportunity to fight for medals on the podium.
Russian biathlete Katya Yurlova delighted her fans in prone shooting. She hit all the targets and finished 6th in the race, 18 seconds back in skiing from number one.
Irina Starykh coped with the shooting and took the intermediate 4th place. She was 23 seconds behind race leader Monika Heunisch.
The first biathlete to complete the individual race in Pokljuka was Wierer. The accuracy of her shooting was inaccurate. She missed twice and immediately after the finish went to bask in the room.
Ira Starykh upset the fans with an offensive mistake at the end of the competition. He did not allow her to count on winning the medal.
End of the race
The competition in Slovenia turned out to be quite dramatic. Ukrainian athlete Yulia Dzhima hit all 20 targets and beat Monica Hoynisch polka by 3.3 seconds.
The representatives of Eastern Europe climbed onto the podium. Julia Dzhima won the first place. The Ukrainian showed herself not only as a first-class shooter, but also as a fast skier. The silver medal went to Hojnisch, the bronze went to the Czech Marketa Davidova.
The victory bypassed the Russians. They finished outside the 10th position. Starykh took 12th place, Valya Vasnetsova came 13th. Kaisheva, Vasilyeva, Yurlova-Perth were not even included in the top 20.
The loss of our athletes turned out to be quite annoying for their fans. Despite the great desire of the Russians to impose a fight on their opponents, they failed to get the coveted medals. We can only hope that in the next race, luck will be on the side of our biathletes.
Race Results Table:
1. Ukraine;
2. Poland;
3. Czech Republic;
4. Slovakia;
5. Latvia;
6. Italy;
7. Italy;
8. Sweden;
9. Austria;
10. Germany;
11. USA;
12. Russia;
13. Russia.
