MANDZIN: “It’s a nasty penalty circle, I could have prevented it”

Young Ukrainian biathlete Vitaly Mandzin shared his emotions after the men’s relay at the first stage of the World Cup. The athlete entered the track in Östersund in the second stage, used three spare cartridges and ran one penalty lap.

As a result of the relay, the Ukrainian team finished in ninth place thanks to the efforts of Dmytro Pidruchny.

“After such a long break, the emotions and feelings from these races were a little forgotten. I haven’t watched the analysis of the race yet, but I can say that I gave it my all. In principle, not bad, but shooting, of course, had to do better.

An unfortunate penalty circle, could have prevented it. The situation on the firing line calmed down a little, but still something prevented a hit. I tried to shoot back quickly – I understood that we were quite far away and could win back a lot in the shooting.

In principle, the circle is small, you won’t play much, but many teams made mistakes in shooting. I tried to play it somewhere, but it didn’t work.

The track was such that there are many places where you can drive on hard snow, and there the skis will go, because the track is hard. There is nothing to complain about – only about himself because of this mistake on the rack. And yes, I had no questions.

In fact, there were no changes in the installation. The second stage – the situation may still change several times. Run like a regular race. I tried to give my all and did my best,” said Vitaly.