March 17, 2010

(Whistler. BC) – It was an Eastern European finish in the women’s 10km standing biathlon event. Ukrainian skier Oleksandra Kononova won the gold with two misses and a time of 46:01:4 while Russia’s Anna Burmistrova took the silver with 7 misses. Her blistering time of 41:04:0 before the shooting penalties would have put her five minutes ahead of Kononova, but with penalties she was 2.3 seconds back. Burmistrova was sandwiched by another Ukrainian as Luliia Batenkova came third, with four misses and 21.9 seconds back.

Canada’s Jody Barber had one of the best results of her career placing 7th. She missed only two shots, despite being given a defective gun on her last round and then had to use a gun that assumed her missing hand was not missing, until she was given another. She still managed to shoot clean on that round to finish 5:14:5 minutes back. To date Barber has had three finishes in the top ten. “I had a great race,” she said at the finish. “It’s my first Paralympics. I’m happy with my shooting. I’m happy with my skiing. I’m just so excited to be here. There’s some very good skiers here. It’s such an honour to represent my country.”

American skier Kelly Underkofler was 9th. “I would have liked to be a little more in the mix, but I’m happy with my race,” said Underkofler. “I skied well again. That’s all I can do. I had a really tough day on Saturday. We made some improvements and I’m trying out some new things. My legs feel much better.”

Men’s Standing 12.5km Biathlon

This race broke the pattern of these Games by shutting the Russians out of the top three. Nils-Erik Ulset of Norway took the gold with a time of 38:29:4, and two misses. Ukranian skier Grygorii Vovchynskyi was the silver medalist with one miss, 59 seconds back. The bronze went to Germany’s Josef Giesen who had one miss and was 2:56 minutes back. Russian skier Kirill Mikhaylov was 4th, Belarus skier Siarhei Silchanka placed 5th while the Ukraine’s Oleh Leshchyshyn was 6th. Canada’s Mark Arendz was the only North American in the field and finished 16th.

Ulset said the race was, “Just amazing. It was an amazing feeling. I’ve been dreaming about this for the past two days now and to manage to do it is incredible. This was my last chance for an individual gold.”

Vovchynskyi said the competition was, “Excellent. It was hard. I’ve never had such a hard race before. My pulse really beating. In the first shooting session I missed – this influenced my final position.”

Women’s full results here.

Men’s full results here.