Belarus
pulled off a solid strategy to come out of the women’s
4x6km biathlon with the gold at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics
Thursday night. Darya
Domracheva finished the race with a big lead that gave her country the win
with Sweden
taking the silver and France
the bronze. Germany and Italy fell apart at the wrong time leaving them empty
handed finishing eighth and ninth respectively.
Half the gold medal winning team from Ukraine returned to
try and get it done again with the Russian contingency coming in brand new
after having their silver medal stripped from them in Sochi. Despite the
changes in the team lineups, the heavy favorites from Germany gave themselves a
serious shot at winning gold with Denise Herrmann and Laura Dahlmeier ready to
make up lost time if necessary. They had the pole position with France and
Sweden starting the first of three legs that would be three laps spanning two kilometers
each.
Snow fell at the start of the event with a full start of the
18 athletes with Germany taking point right away. At the first checkpoint,
Poland and France rounded out the top three with the Americans coming into fourth
after starting 18th. When they entered the shooting range, the focus
of who could deal with the snow falling would become interesting. Leaving first
clean was Team USA followed by Ukraine and Germany but her slow finish put her
in seventh leaving the range.
The Italians took the lead on the second shoot with the
Americans falling down a spot with one miss. Norway and Slovakia come out right
after with many of the favorites fell with Germany taking it the hardest as she
missed three and dropped a round making it harder to come back from. Prior to
the entry of the first exchange, Italy had a seven second lead with Slovakia
back by double digits.
By the third shoot of the event, Italy lost their control
with Slovakia picking up the pace with Anastasiya Kuzmina in the second leg.
She opened the gap on the rest of the competitors that brought her into the
fourth shoot all alone. The wind became a factor for the gold medalist who took
her time but missed wide on her first shot. It didn’t get any better for her or
the rest who all took their time to wait for a clean round. Italy regained their
lead in the race with no misses followed by Finland and Belarus coming out
clean.
Finland overtook them up the second hill with Italy 15
seconds back before coming in to the third exchange. Finland continued to stay out
front with the gap only 12 seconds with Belarus still in third. The United
States fell back to sixth over time but were still in sight of the leader. The
fifth shoot gave Finland, Italy and France some time to concentrate but in the
end all three missed that gave Italy the lead with Slovakia taking second and
Belarus third.
The final shot for the third leg ultimately determined who
would give the anchor the best chance. Italy missed twice but came out fourth
with Belarus finishing quicker to give Domracheva the chance to finish the
final leg. They fell back to second with Poland in the lead on the final lap of
the third leg. Italy kept themselves in the hunt for a medal with France and
Slovakia still around.
The final exchange was made with Poland still in front with
France in second while Belarus sat in third going up the first hill. The
seventh shoot would be huge for the three-time gold medalist from Sochi and if
she could get ahead of the leaders. She came out of it perfectly with the
others missing before Italy and Poland took off with a lap or two to take. By
the time Domracheva came up to the first checkpoint her lead was 23 seconds
over France and 29 over Poland in third.
The final shoot would be huge for Belarus to deal with that
would secure them a gold medal in a team event for the first time since the
event’s birth in 1992. Domracheva came into the final shoot with a huge lead
but missed three making it hard with France showing up. They missed two as well
giving Belarus a chance. When it was all said and done, she came out with a six
second lead for the moment.
The final lap was between Belarus and France who were less
than six seconds apart with Sweden back in the mix after going perfectly with
Hanna Oeberg on the anchor for her country. She held third by a margin of 12
seconds but took second from France at the top with 1.1kms to go. Domracheva
was running all alone with no sign of competitors to come into the finish with
a time of 1:12:03.4 with Sweden finishing 10 seconds back and France 17
seconds.
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