Wolff wins the European Junior Championship
On Sunday, January 25, Latvian athlete Estere Wolfa won the gold medal at the European Junior Biathlon Championship held in Finland at a distance of nine kilometers with a joint start. As the portal jauns.lv informs, this is Wolfa’s third award in these championships, previously she won bronze medals in sprint and pair relay.
The outcome of the competition was particularly dramatic. After the final shoot, Wolff was in second place, 10.8 seconds behind leader Tetyana Tarasyuk of Ukraine. However, a strong performance in the last lap allowed the Latvian not only to catch up with the Ukrainian, but also to overtake her by more than three seconds.
The key to Wolff’s success
Wolff completed the distance in 27 minutes and 0.6 seconds, committing only one shooting error. Her main competitor, Tarasjuka, shot without mistakes, but lost to the Latvian in skiing speed. Third place went to Greta Seldahl from Sweden, who made two mistakes and lost more than a minute to the winner.
Other Latvian sportswomen and junior competitions
Other representatives of Latvia failed to enter the top three this time. Elsa Bleidel finished 21st with five shooting errors, almost two minutes behind the winner. Martine Djatkovića, who also made five mistakes, took 42nd place in the competition of 60 participants.
In the junior competition for men, the Czech athlete Michael Malek became the European champion. Latvian athlete Rihards Lozbers, despite being the fastest skier in the distance, five errors in the shooting prevented him from fighting for a medal, and he finished in the eighth position.
