The Ridnaun sprint European championship titles move to Eastern Europe

In the men's sprint, Andrejs Rastorgujevs was just ahead after a high-class and exciting competition. The Latvian made a mistake at the shooting range once, but showed himself to be extremely strong on the cross-country ski trail and ultimately won with a time of 23.09,6:18 minutes. In the Biathlon World Cup, Rastorgujevs is anything but an unknown: 2016th overall. The current overall ranking has already finished in the top ten twice this year and even climbed onto the podium once in the mass start in Oslo in the 17/XNUMX season.

The Russian Alexander Loginov came in second. Like Rastorgujevs, the 25-year-old from Saratov hit nine of the ten targets and finished 5,5 seconds behind. Loginov also shined from the podium in the Biathlon World Cup, coming third in the pursuit in Oslo 2012/13. This year the Russian impressed in the highest international biathlon series with three top ten results, including fourth place in Annecy-Le Grand Bornand.

Bulgarian Krasimir Anev secured the bronze medal. The 29-year-old made no mistakes at the shooting range and was 24,5 seconds behind the day's winner Rastorgujevs at the finish. Anev is a real Ridnaun specialist: The Bulgarian had already shown off in the Ridnaun Valley at the 2011 European Championships and won one silver and one bronze. In the World Cup, Anev's best results were a fourth and two sixth places.

“Azzurri” beyond the first 30

The five Italians at the start had to be content with placings outside the top 30. Rudy Zini came off as the best “Azzurro” – he landed in 32nd place without missing a shot. Immediately behind him was Pietro Dutto in 33rd place. Saverio Zini finished 74th, while South Tyrol's only starter, Andreas Plaickner from Tsselberg, finished 112th. Paolo Rodigari, however, took 118th place.

Varvynets flawlessly to the women's sprint title In the women's sprint, Ukrainian Iryna Varvynets was unbeatable. The 25-year-old hit all ten targets and set the fastest time of the race in 20.54,1:15 minutes. Varvynets had already caused a stir in the World Cup several times and was in the top ten there three times. This year, however, things didn't go so well for the Ukrainian in the highest international racing series - Varvynets couldn't do more than XNUMXth place there.

Silver went to France's Chloé Chevalier. Although the newly crowned individual European champion did not make any mistakes at the shooting range, second place was not to be taken away from her thanks to an outstanding running performance. The podium was completed by the Japanese Fuyuko Tachizaki, a biathlete from non-European countries. However, because the European Biathlon Championships in Ridnaun are held as an open European championship, the World Cup-tested Tachizaki was also allowed to start and was included in the ranking as third place. This meant that the first international medal win by a Japanese biathlete - whose coaching staff, Ubaldo Prucker, was pulling the strings - was perfect.

Karin Oberhofer in ninth place Karin Oberhofer from Feldthurn put in a decent performance. The local hero had to make one penalty lap and ended up in ninth place - just over 15 seconds behind a podium finish. The second “Azzurra” in the group, Ginevra Rocchia, missed three times at the shooting range and took 79th place.

The European Championships in Ridnaun will continue on Saturday with the two pursuit competitions.

Men's sprint competition (10 km) 1. Andrejs Rastorgujev's LAT 24.03,0 minutes / 1 miss 2. Alexander Loginov RUS +5,5 / 1 3. Krasimir Anev BUL +24,5 / 0 4. Haavard Gutuboe Bogetveit NOR +31,7 / 0 5. Artem Pryma UKR +38,6 / 0 ... 32. Rudy Zini ITA +1.39,6 / 0 33. Pietro Dutto ITA +1.40,1 / 1 74. Saverio Zini ITA +2.31,2 / 2 112. Andreas Plaickner ITA/Tesselberg +3.52,6 / 4 118. Paolo Rodigari ITA +4.30,5 / 4

Women's sprint competition (7,5 km) 1. Iryna Varvynets UKR 19.53,8:0 minutes / XNUMX misses 2. Chloé Chevalier FRA +12,5 / 1 3. Fuyuko Tachizaki JPN +15,5/0 4. Victoria Slivko RUS +17,6 / 0 5. Karolin Horchler GER +24,6 / 0 ... 9. Karin Oberhofer ITA/Feldthurns +30,8 / 1 79. Ginevra Rocchia ITA +3.31,0 / 3

The voices for the men's race:

Andrejs Rastorgujevs (Gold): At the World Cup in Antholz I had a bit of a hard time at the shooting range, so I've been training my shooting intensively in the last few days. Today we have seen that this training is paying off. The gold medal is of course a great motivational boost for the Olympics.

Alexander Loginov (Silver): The race was very close, only small episodes decided between first and second place. I'm now looking ahead to the pursuit: I'll attack there fully - we'll see what happens next.

Krasimir Anev (Bronze): I want to give my all in every race, whether in the World Cup or the European Championships. I did that today and am very happy with the result. When I went into the last round in fourth place, I had to fight hard - but thanks to my service people and my team, who prepared me excellently, I still managed to finish in third place.

The voices for the women's race: Iryna Varvynets (Gold): After the individual competition on Wednesday I was not at all satisfied with my shooting. So today I concentrated particularly hard at the shooting range. Luckily for me, not many went clean, otherwise it probably wouldn't have been enough to win.

Chloe Chevalier (Silver): Two races, two medals – it really couldn’t have gone better for me. When shooting standing I missed the first target and got a little nervous, but luckily I made that one mistake.

Fuyuko Tachizaki (Bronze): With this medal a big dream has come true. I actually focused my season on the Olympics and am here in Ridnaun “only” to prepare for it, but with this result I have exceeded everything I have achieved so far. At the end of the race, I not only struggled on the track, but was already dreaming of a medal. Now I'm in seventh heaven.

European Biathlon Championships in Ridnaun – January 22nd to 28th, 2018

Competition program: Saturday, January 27th: Men's Pursuit (13.00 p.m.), Women's Pursuit (15.00 p.m.) Sunday, January 28th: Single mixed relay (13.00 p.m.), mixed relay (15.00 p.m.)

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The Ridnaun sprint European championship titles move to Eastern Europe

At the European Biathlon Championships in Ridnaun, the decisions were made in the sprint on Friday. The Latvian Andrejs Rastorgujevs and the Ukrainian Iryna Varvynets were crowned the new European champions. Karin Oberhofer from Feldthurns ended up in ninth place as the best “Azzurra”.

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