HANDBOOK – about the sprint: “Difficult weather conditions, the track was broken”

Leader of the Ukrainian biathlon team, Dmytro Pidruchnyianswered several questions after the sprint of the third stage of the World Cup in Annecy. Dmytro did not cover three targets at the border and stopped at the 44th step.

– First of all, Dmytro, how are you feeling in Annecy, because there was still a cough in the fresh air in Hochfiltzen?

– It’s already a little better and the cough is a little less, but I still feel it and of course it bothers me. But compared to Hochfilzen, it is already better.

– What do you think was missing in today’s sprint?

– The shooting was not good enough, I don’t fully understand why. If it was my mistake with the bed, because I was a little hasty, it could have been closed, my mistake. And shooting with a rack was not clear to me. It was somehow difficult to shoot on the rack, and we can see that all the athletes made quite a few misses. But in general, I think it was possible to shoot at zero, it was a little underpowered somewhere.

– You showed the 20th fastest time among all participants, are you satisfied with your work on the track?

– In general, I am satisfied, the 20th move is quite good, but the loss relative to the leaders is still large. But it should be taken into account that today there were difficult weather conditions, we can see that those who used to be in the leaders in terms of speed did not show a sufficiently high result today. Ski performance was very important today, the track was not in the best condition, plus the warm weather conditions made this race much more difficult than we would have liked.

– How difficult was the track today, was it the impression that under the feet of the biathletes was solid porridge?

– The porridge was strong, the track was broken, the water protruded on the skis, therefore, of course, the leaders did not roll as they would have liked, there was no such speed, but everyone was on equal terms. It is difficult to say how well our skis worked compared to other biathletes. But I can say that they worked at the level, quite well, next to those with whom I drove on the track.

– They probably already analyzed today’s start. How will you prepare for the pursuit?

– On a chase? I will correct errors in shooting, and I will try to win some positions, if it is possible.