Anastasiya Kuzmina finished the race in 41:31.9 minutes. That was enough for second place behind Swedish biathlete, Hanna Oeberg, who hit all 20 targets and finished in 33:54.4 minutes.
Another Slovak biathlete, Paulína Fialková, finished fifth, 59.8 seconds behind first place, in what the press labelled “the race of her life”.
“It was great. I’m very sorry about that one missed shot, but I’m satisfied with the race,” Fialková said.
This discipline is not Kuzmina’s forte, since the focus is on shooting (when the athlete fails to hit the target, one minute is added to their time, as opposed to the pursuit discipline where failure to hit the target results in running the penalty round). Kuzmina does not belong among the best shooters at the moment, the Sme daily noted before the race.
“I had a great run,” Kuzmina commented after she finished the race.
The Slovak biathletes will compete in the mass start race on Saturday.
Read more about the performance of Slovaks at the Olympics so far:
