Kazakhstan's biathlete wins silver at World Championship

Galina Vishnevskaya. Photo courtesy of biathlon.kz.

Kazakhstan’s biathlete Galina Vishnevskaya, 21, has clinched a silver medal in the junior women’s 7.5 km sprint on February 21 at the International Biathlon Union (IBU) Youth/Junior World Championship in Minsk, Belarus, which started on February 17 and finished on February 24, Tengrinews reports citing Vesti.kz.

Kazakhstan’s biathlete Galina Vishnevskaya, 21, has clinched a silver medal in the junior women’s 7.5 km sprint on February 21 at the International Biathlon Union (IBU) Youth/Junior World Championship in Minsk, Belarus, which started on February 17 and finished on February 24, Tengrinews reports citing Vesti.kz.

The gold medal was hauled by 18-year-old Lena Arnaud from France, who from the first minutes was in the leading group and finished the sprint stage in 20 minutes 40 seconds and 6 milliseconds. Both Kazakh and French athletes shot clean and had an excellent speed, but in the final kilometer Arnaud turned outraced the Kazakhstani athlete and claimed the victory leaving her opponent only 2.4 seconds behind.

Vishnevskaya admitted she spent too much time in the prone, and this cost her the victory. The bronze prize winner and Arnaud’s teammate Chloe Chevalier also shot well, but she lost points spending too much time in the standings. She covered the distance in 20 minutes 53 seconds and 7 milliseconds.

Other biathletes from Kazakhstan Viktoriya Bazhenova and Valentina Saulenko finished the stage on the 48th and 58th places respectively.

(top row) Galina Vishnevskaya, Marie Heinrich,Yuliya Zhuvarok; (bottom row) Lisa Vittozzi, Chloe Chevalier,and Linn Persson after the sprint stage. ©IBU/Evgeny Tumashov

Galina Vishnevskaya during the sprint stage. ©IBU/Evgeny Tumashov

French Chloe Chevalier. ©IBU/Evgeny Tumashov

Lena Arnaud. ©IBU/Evgeny Tumashov

Next day, on February 22, biathletes competed in a 10 km junior women’s pursuit stage of the championship, where Kazakhstan’s Vishnevskaya began as a leader and managed to keep this position until the last standing, but then she missed a shot and yielded the leading position to a German biathlete, thus coming second in 28 minutes 13 seconds and 7 milliseconds and with two penalties.

The winner of this stage was Marie Heinrich from Germany, who finished the stage in 27 minutes 58 seconds and 3 milliseconds. The bronze medal went to Ukrainian Yuliya Zhuvarok, who had 28 minutes and 19 seconds.

Kazakh biathlete Viktoriya Bazhenova finished 49th, while Valentina Saulenko came 54th.

(top row) Galina Vishnevskaya, Marie Heinrich,Yuliya Zhuvarok; (bottom row) Lisa Vittozzi, Chloe Chevalier and Linn Persson after the pursuit stage. ©IBU/Evgeny Tumashov

By Assel Satubaldina

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