Peyongchang Olympics: Kuzmina wins gold in women's 12.5km mass start

Anastasiya Kuzmina continued her dominance in the women’s biathlon at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. The 33 year old picked up another gold in the 12.5 km mass start at the Alpensia Biathlon Centre with Darya Domracheva of Belarus finishing with the silver. Norway’s Tiril Eckhoff of Norway missed two but came to the finish line winning the bronze medal.

The last race determined starting points for the mass start with Germany’s Laura Dahlmeier leading the way with Sweden’s Hanna Oeberg and Marte Olsbu in the first row. With no intervals, it would be an all-out battle for the lead with five laps of 2.5 kilometers with four stops to shoot with the prone then standing to finish it off. With one last chance to earn an individual medal and her first of the games, the Belorussian would try her best to defend her gold medal from 2014 despite being in ninth.

Olsbu led through the first turn but got leveled with Dahlmeier and Oeberg with Kuzmina taking them up the first hill. At the 2km mark, the pace was set with Kuzmina coming in at 3:51 with the entire back spanning 22 seconds. It was a busy moment at the range where getting there first handed the biathlete the advantage to focus. Kuzmina and Herrmann were first by a small margin.

Kuzmina went clear with Oeberg and Domracheva and Olsbu following suit in the first round. Dahlmeier wasn’t so lucky as she missed the middle target to come out 22^nd. Domracheva moved into second but the gap was six seconds at the 3.4km checkpoint between herself and the Slovakian. Dahlmeier got into 20^th but was still 36 seconds behind leaving no room for errors in the competition.

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They came into the second shoot with Kuzmina looking comfortable with Domracheva keeping her composure for the first time. They both went perfectly where the split between the two was almost eight seconds. Oeberg and Denise Herrmann were perfect again along with many others but the leader at the start missed another one that would keep her out of getting another medal.

Into the third shoot, Kuzmina had nine seconds on Domracheva going perfectly before the Belorussian shot away missing her first. It cost her big on time with Oeberg missing as well taking her down in the time. Italian Dorothea Wierer came out in seconds 28 seconds behind Kuzmina with Czech biathlete Veronika Vitkova in third. The Slovakian remained in fine form halfway through the third lap gaining a 37 second gap of second place.

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In the final round, Kuzmina came into the range all alone going four straight with 50 seconds on the pack. It was the final shot that she took her time as the crowd got very quiet. With her gap falling, the Slovakian missed her only target to come out with 24 seconds left on Domracheva in second and Eckhoff in third. Oeberg was fortunate to go clean as well but her gap was 13 seconds from bronze.

With one kilometer standing left, it was Kuzmina’s to hang on to with Domracheva still holding into second with Eckhoff running behind her by more than 100 meters. When the finish came on the horizon for the Slovakian, she served the gold medal at 35:23 beating Domracheva by 18 seconds. Eckhoff held for the bronze 27 seconds back missing two shots overall.