Biathlon: best result equalled for Slovakia
On Saturday, during the women’s relay at the World Biathlon Championships in Lenzerheide (Switzerland), the Slovakian team put in a surprising sixth place. In a race dominated by the French team, the battle for the two remaining places on the podium was fierce.
Ema Kapustova got the Slovakian relay off to a perfect start. Coming out of the standing shoot in third place to everyone’s surprise, she finally passed on the relay in sixth place.
“Today, I was confident on the shooting range and I trusted myself to shoot faster. It went pretty well on the course. Lou Jeanmonnot was in a different category, but when I came out of the stand-up shoot and saw how many women were still there, it gave me a boost. I’m sorry, though, that two other women overtook me in the final”, she told Slovakian television station STVR.
Behind her, it was the turn of the team leader, Paulina Batovska Fialkova, to take over. On the floor, the Slovakian was forced to use her three picks and fell to ninth place. But with a superb standing shot, she climbed to third place.
“I was feeling good. The track was broken, so it was up to me to make the most of it. That’s why I tried to do my best. I struggled on the downhill, but I finally managed to clear the upright. It was nervous, it’s a relay race, a responsibility not only for yourself, but for the whole team”, said Paulina Batovska Fialkova.
Three-time Olympic champion Anastasiya Kuzmina followed in third place. After a difficult first prone shot with three picks, she managed a perfect standing shot and found herself up against Hanna Oeberg. The biathlete passed the baton to her young compatriot Maria Remenova in fourth place.
The 24-year-old biathlete was in contention for the bronze medal in the standing shot. With two picks, she finished fifth, 14 seconds behind the Swedes in third place. In the final lap, Maria Remenova was overtaken by Germany’s Franziska Preuss and finished in sixth place, 31 seconds off the podium.
“These are incredible emotions and indescribable feelings. I was shaking like never before [on the standing shot, editor’s note], it was a huge responsibility. I made two mistakes, but I’m glad I managed to overcome them. It was very nerve-wracking, it was the second time I’d been through that. Your head has to accept this stress and work with it. I’m very happy that we managed to show what we’re worth at the world championships,” said Maria Remenova.
As she crossed the line, she was joined by Paulina Batovska Fialkova, who was delighted with sixth place.With this sixth place, they equalled the best relay result achieved by a Slovakian team at a World Championship, after Östersund (Sweden) in 2019.
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