Biathlon World Cup – Annecy
Results – women’s 10 km pursuit race:
Slovak biathlete Paulína Bátovská Fialková took fifth place after Thursday’s sprint in Saturday’s pursuit race of the 3rd round of the World Cup in Annecy – Le Grand-Bornand, France.
With one mistake on the lie-down and the stand-up, she reached the finish line with a deficit of 35.5 seconds to the local winner Lou Jeanmonnotová (27:58.8 min).
Suvi Minkkinen from Finland finished second (+30.2 s) and Dorothea Wierer from Italy (+32.7 s) finished third.
Bátovská Fialková started from the fifth position, which she won in Thursday’s sprint.
However, she had to go to a penalty round on the opening lie, but after that she dropped by only one rung. She managed the second item without a mistake and returned to fifth place.
During the first stand, she missed the third target and again moved only one place lower, as her rivals also made mistakes.
She managed the final fourth event and ran from sixth place to the last lap, and still in the run she had a chance to overtake her opponents who were just ahead of her.
In the end, she beat Italy’s Lisa Vittozzi and took the same place as in the sprint, thanks to which she will also start in Sunday’s mass start race.
“I’m satisfied, I felt confident, and that also resulted in a sense of well-being on the shooting range. I’ll take the fifth place,” said Bátovská Fialková for STVR, who has already moved to 20th place in the overall ranking of the SP, and is in 22nd position in the fighter.
Jeanmonnot dominated
Second from the sprint, Jeanmonnotová went confidently from the beginning, after the mistake of the first Hanna Öberg from Sweden on the opening lay, she got to the front and did not let go of the first position, despite one mistake.
However, she only came in the final stand, where she came with a significant lead over her rivals.
The “clean” Minkkinen from Finland, who improved her sixth position from the sprint, moved into second place, and Wierer finished third.
Thanks to the victory, Jeanmonnot moved to the top of the overall ranking.
Belt collision
The second Slovak representative, Mária Remeňová, started from the 46th place, after the first lie down she had to do one penalty round and dropped two places.
She also missed one target on the second one, but managed the first stand without a mistake and jumped to 41st place. However, she did not reach the points in the end, as she did not hit a single target on the last item and came to the finish line in 49th place after a collision in the final round.
“The Swede Heijdenberg blocked me there, I hit the blue corridor and lost about three or four positions.
Those mistakes on the shooting range were so typical for me, as I also do in training, I have to correct them,” she said in an interview with STVR.
