Skardino 3rd in Mass Start, Domracheva falls out of race

Nadezhda Skardino of Belarus finished 3rd in 12.5K Mass Start at BMW IBU World Cup Biathlon 3 in Pokljuka, Slovenia on 21 December.

The clean shooting Belarusian crossed the finish line in 34:34.6, 15.8 seconds behind the winner. The best time of 34:18.8 was shown by Finland's Kaisa Makarainen despite two penalties. Second was Anais Bescond of France who shot clean, 7.6 seconds back.

Belarus number one Darya Domracheva decided to retire due to the problems with her rifle. The Belarusian had a penalty at the first shooting range and went to the loop. She crashed hard coming out of the loop. Due to technical problems she took the team spare and had four penalties. She went to the penalty loop and retired.

For Nadezhda Skardino it is the first podium in the season.

In the 2014/15 IBU World Cup standings Nadezhda Skardino goes 15th with 182 points. Darya Domracheva dropped one spot to the 3rd position with a total of 303 points. Second goes Valentina Semerenko of Ukraine with 328 points. The Ukrainian finished 5th in Mass Start on 21 December. Finland's Kaisa Makarainen streghtened her position on the top with 422 points.