:watermark(https://f.pmo.ee//logos/4232/4ebd6f5dc62d0c4b6f1961c46e2f0303.png,-2p,-2p,0,18,none):format(webp)/nginx/o/2025/02/24/16683438t1h7bec.jpg "Bendika Retirement: Third Shot Falls Short")
The chase was first started by sprint winner Hanna Eberja from Sweden, while Bendika took the track one minute and 12 seconds later with number 27. In the first prone shooting, she did not close a single target and fell to 35th place, but in the second, after two penalty laps on the track, she returned to 50th position.
In the first standing shooting, the Latvian made mistakes in all five shots and withdrew.
Jeanmono, who took second place in the sprint, did not close one goal until the last firing line and finished in 27 minutes and 58.8 seconds. Finland’s Suvi Minkinen, who shot accurately, finished second, 30.2 seconds behind and moved up four places, while Italy’s Dorothea Vierer, who took third place, measured one penalty lap and lost another 2.5 seconds.
Sprint winner Eberja missed four goals and settled for seventh place.
Ester Wolff, who was 58th in the sprint, also qualified for the pursuit, but she did not start on Saturday and went to training camp instead.
Renārs Birkentāls and Andrejs Rastorgujevs will start the 12.5-kilometer distance at 15.45
A competition with a joint start is planned for Sunday, but based on the performance in this and previous stages, none of the Latvian biathletes is even on the list of the closest reserves.
There are nine stages in the World Cup competition this season. After the new year, the World Cup will be held on the German tracks in Oberhof and Ruopolding, as well as in the Czech city of Nove Mesto. From February 8 to 21, biathletes will compete in the Olympic Games in Italy, and in March, three more stages of the World Cup will be held in Kontiolahti, Otepä and Holmenkollen.
