Our finest biathletes will make up Team Ukraine

This year the Biathlon World Championships will be held in Kontiolahti from March 5 through 15. Ukraine’s national team’s coaches announced the team’s composition on March 3. As reported by the official website of  the Biathlon Federation of Ukraine, our men’s team in Finland includes Serhii     Semenov, Dmytro Pidruchny, Artem       Pryma, Artem Tyshchenko, Oleksandr Zhyrny, and Dmytro Rusynov, while women’s team is composed of seven athletes: Valentyna Semerenko, Yulia Dzhyma, Iryna Varvynets, Yana Bondar, Anastasia Merkushyna, Yulia Zhuravok, and Olha Abramova. There were reports that Abramova and Natalia Burdyha would miss the 2015 World Championships. However, Abramova managed to end up on the list.

Still, composition of teams that will take part in the competition is subject to changes. According to a statement by president of the Biathlon Federation of Ukraine Volodymyr Brynzak, Dzhyma is unwell and may have to miss the first races.

“She had a fever, and doctors suspect she has bronchitis. The team landed in Finland on March 2, and we will play the cards we are dealt. Perhaps she will miss the first races and prepare only for the relay and individual races,” Brynzak said in a comment.

Let us recall that the championship’s opening event will be the mixed relay, to be held on March 5. The men’s sprint (10 km) and women’s sprint (7.5 km) races will be held on March 7, while the closing events will be the women’s mass start (12.5 km) and men’s mass start (15 km), both slated for March 15.

The first race of the Biathlon World Championships will be broadcast live by the First National TV channel at 6.05 p.m. on March 5.

By the way, millions of biathlon fans celebrated the sport’s birthday on the eve of the World Championships! March 2 is traditionally said to be the date in question, because Austria hosted the 1st Biathlon World Championships on this day in 1958.