Incredible Valentyna Semerenko

Slovenian Pokljuka hosted the third event of the Biathlon World Cup, which completed the first trimester of the current season. Leader of the Ukrainian women’s team Valentyna Semerenko finished third in the pursuit race, and fifth in the mass start, the first such race of the season. After the latest race, Semerenko has risen to the second position in the overall standings, ahead of Olympic champion Darya Domracheva, who had to withdraw from the race because of a fall. Finnish athlete Kaisa Makarainen still leads the overall rankings with 422 points to her name, Semerenko is 94 points behind her with 328, and Belarusian Domracheva is the last of the leading trio with 303 points. Another Ukrainian biathlete Yulia Dzhyma has scored 120 points and kept her 27th position, which was her start standing at the mass start as well.

The official website of the Biathlon Federation of Ukraine reports that after the first trimester’s races, our athletes have gone home to prepare for the fourth event of the World Cup. Our team will go to a new stadium in Sianky, Lviv region, where it will participate in the championship of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the next event of the 2014-15 Biathlon World Cup will start on January 6 in Oberhof, Germany.

With the World Cup on a hiatus, we can analyze medal-winning trends of the new season. It is clear that the French team has stayed the leader with nine medals, including four gold, three silver, and two bronze ones; it is followed by Finland with seven medals – four gold, two silver, and a bronze one, while Norway has come third with nine medals, in that four gold, a silver, and four bronze ones. Ukraine’s team won five medals at the World Cup’s three events, including two silver and three bronze ones.