Slovakia Has First Medal from PyeongChang, Kuzmina Takes Silver in Pursuit
PyeongChang, February 12 (TASR) – Slovak biathlete Anastasiya Kuzmina won a silver medal in the women’s 10 kilometre pursuit at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
German Laura Dahlmeier won the race with a 29.4-second margin, while Kuzmina edged out France’s Anais Bescond by 0.2 seconds in an astonishing sprint. Another Slovak, Paulina Fialkova, ended up 38th.
The Russian-born Kuzmina entered the evening pursuit in a position different than she did at the winter Olympics four and eight years ago. In Sochi and Vancouver she won the sprint and started the pursuit with a lead, but today she had to catch up the loss as she placed 13th in the sprint with a loss of 54 seconds.
Kuzmina’s first reaction was mainly about the enormous happiness she was feeling. “I’m very happy to have won a medal. The four mistakes shouldn’t have been there, because the gold medal was within reach. I tried to fight with Laura, but I’m very happy with silver too. This is my level. I’m feeling great joy to make all my fans happy.”
