Biathlete Rastorguyev also starts the World Cup season in sprint with a place in the third place / Article / LSM.lv

On Sunday, the leader of the Latvian biathlon team Andrejs Rastorgujevs finished the first stage of the World Cup season in men in Kontiolahti, Finland, with the 23rd place in the 10-kilometer sprint. With two mistakes in the shooting, Rastorgujev had no chance to qualify for the top ten in the distance.

Convincingly, the Norwegian Johann Tinyess Be, who shot quickly and accurately, as well as left no chance for the competitors on the ski slope, finishing after 23 minutes and 53.0 seconds. Second place winner Swede Sebastian Samuelson was 44.1 seconds behind, but the trio of winners was closed by his compatriot Martin Ponsiloma, losing 47.9 seconds. Both Samuelson and Ponsiloma did not shoot at one goal.

Rastorgujev was a minute and 41.2 seconds behind the winner.

For Rastorguyev, the first line of fire failed, where two targets remained open. After measuring two penalty laps, the chances of a very high place had practically disappeared, but Andrejs continued to fight for a higher World Cup score.

However, in the second line of fire, Rastorgujev was infallible when shooting upright and climbed higher in the leaderboard.

Latvia was also represented in the competition of 101 participants by debutants Renārs Birkentāls and Kirils Matjuhins, ranking 88th and 96th, respectively. Birkenthal made two mistakes in the shooting, Matjuhin flew three bullets to the target.

It has already been reported that on Saturday in the 20-kilometer individual distance Rastorgujevs won 21st place, but debutants Rūdis Balodis and Roberts Slotiņš took 58th and 96th place, respectively.

Later on Sunday, the 7.5-kilometer sprint for women will take place, where Latvia will be represented by Annija Keita Sabule and Ieva Pūce. In the first week of December, the second stage of the World Cup will take place in Kontiolahti.

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