Ukrainian biathlete becomes European sprint champion

Ukrainian biathlete Anastasia Merkushyna won the second individual sprint race among women and became the European biathlon sprint champion, Ukrinform reports.

Anastasia showed a time of 23 minutes and 14.5 seconds and did not make a single mistake on the firing lines. Sweden's Tilda Johansson was second, 0.5 seconds behind (1 miss), and German Vanessa Gintz (+1.8; 0) was third.

Anastasia Merkushyna won gold for Ukraine.

The results of other Ukrainian women: Anna Kryvonos – 22nd place, Yulia Dzyma – 39th, Liubov Kypyachenkova – 52nd, and Olena Bilosiuk – 55th. A total of 107 biathletes started.

The men's 10 km sprint will also be held today at the European Championships. Our team will be represented by: Anton Dudchenko (5th stratum number), Artem Pryma (30), Denys Nasyko (41), Bohdan Tsymbal (48), Artem Tyshchenko (80), and Taras Lesiuk (122).

On Saturday, January 28, the pursuit races will take place at the Euro.

It has been a winning streak for Ukraine since January 25, when the 30th European biathlon championship began in the Swiss town of Lenzerheide.

On the first day of the championship, Ukrainian Yulia Dzyma finished third in the 15 km individual race with four firing lines. 

While initially, she was the third, Ukraine still won silver. The electronic score tracking system mistakenly missed Italian Carrara's two misses on the second firing line. But after a review, the Italian was given a two-minute penalty, so she moved to the 11th position.

So, Lisa Maria Spark became the European champion, Yulia Dzhyma became the runner-up with "silver," and the "bronze" went to another representative of Germany, Selina Grotian.

Later, the Ukrainian biathlon team won the second medal at the European Championship.

The men's individual 20 km race ended with the "silver" of Anton Dudchenko, who covered the distance with one miss in four firing lines. The Norwegian Endre Strømsheim won with clear shooting, and the "bronze" went to the Slovenian Lovro Planko.

Thus, in the medal count of the European Championship, the Ukrainian national team took first place, having 1 "gold" and 2 "silvers."