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On the occasion of his 28th birthday, the biathlete gave himself the best gift: he reached a personal record in the personal 20 km race, ranking 16. At the shooting range, the Lithuanian shot up to 19 targets out of 20.
The position in the results protocol generally came as a pleasant surprise for V. Stroliai, who generally sets the highest goals for himself: after treating his back injury in September, the athlete has not felt well in training so far.
“Until now I did not feel very confident, because I did not do very well after that injury and I did not feel very good during training. However, when I woke up today, the mood was quite good, I received a nice greeting from my wife, I left at the beginning in a completely different mood than I used to be. I felt freer, I knew that at the beginning of the season, I wasn’t expecting too much, I just wanted to do my best job, ”said V. Strolia.
The Lithuanian biathlete started the season-opening competition in third place. Competitors who started before him shot imprecisely, allowing us to be seen at the top of the lineup for a while.
“It’s fun to be able to go on TV (laughs, aut. Past). It’s better to start at the front all the time, because after filming there are no more breaks, you don’t have to sit and wait. I was able to do the shoot, warm up and go to the Also, today the trail was called sugar, soft snow. At first, there was less of that sugar and it was an advantage for me, “said V. Strolia.
After the first round of shooting, in which he made his only mistake, Anykštėnas was 65, the second – 30, the third – 17, the fourth – even 13. V. Strolia ranked 38th out of 101 participants in terms of speed on the track.
“I can’t say that I reached my peak because I didn’t hit a single shot, but as for the start of the season, I’m very happy. Certainty that this beginning has given, there is no need to think about what it will be like later, as there will be good and bad starts. Is this the best birthday present? What I have been able to give myself, I think is the best ”, said the biathlete, who will receive a prize of 1,250 euros from the International Biathlon Union.
For position 16, the savings bank of V. Strolija was supplemented with 25 credit points for the World Cup. Karolis Dombrovskis successfully appeared in the competition and scored 5 points, who also made a mistake only once and took 36th place. Linas Banys was ranked 82nd (3 minutes from penalty) and Maksimas Fominas, who debuted in this ranking, It was the 91st (4 minutes).
In the National Cup, the Lithuanian men’s team reached a record 297 points. In it, ours will be ranked 13th and the top 20 teams will win at least four tickets to the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
“It is difficult to judge from a start, because there are still many waiting. It is not necessary to emphasize an exit, the most important thing is that the whole team triumphs throughout the season and does not get sick. It is good that Karolis was lucky today, and the young people scored points ”, smiled V. Strolia.
The winner of the competition was Norway’s Sturla Holm Laegreid, who shot without errors, 19.6 sec. overtaking his compatriot Johannes Thingnes Boe (1 fine) and 1 min. 3.6 seconds German Erik Lesser (1 fine).
In the 15km individual women’s race, Gabrielė Leščinskaitė recorded the second best result of her career, once she ran and was ranked 54th. Another Lithuanian biathlete, Natalija Kočergina, made a mistake three times and was 63 out of 102 participants.
Reigning world champion Dorothea Wierer started the season with victory: the Italian, who fired without errors, was only 0.8 seconds away. he beat the German Denis Hermmann (1 fine) and 24.1 sec. – Johann Skottheim from Sweden (0 fines). By the way, up to five Swedish biathletes were in the top 11.
On Sunday a sprint race will take place in Kontiolahti. Although the organizers planned that spectators could also come to the stadium, this idea was eventually abandoned.
“It is not the first outing without spectators, it is becoming a bit common. It is much more fun with the spectators, but it is the way it is. Everything is very neat here, we feel safe. A hotel houses three teams, but they have all been tested.
We don’t walk into the city, we just run cross country, we don’t go to the shops much and that allows, and we all walk in the stadium wearing masks. Only a team of people go to the stadium with a bus, so we felt really safe ”, V. Strolia summarized the conditions.
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