Biathlon: Suvi Minkkinen lost her teeth – the fierce initial pace backfired

Ruhpolding

Finland superstar Suvi Minkkinen was sixth in the Biathlon World Cup women’s sprint race on Friday, although she shot both places cleanly.

Minkkinen was still third after the first place, but the brisk initial pace backfired. He stated afterwards that the performance as a whole “still has a lot to improve”.

“I started at a pretty fast pace. Somehow I realized already during the first round that ‘Suvi, you are making this game quite difficult for yourself now. You should maybe be a little more patient'”, Minkkinen said with a smile after the race.

Joutslainen bravely set out to win. It finally went to Sweden To Hanna Öberg. France leading the World Cup Lou Jeanmonnot was second before Italy Lisa Vittozzia.

Minkkinen knew what it takes to win in Ruhpolding.

“When there is a great desire to be in the top places there and you know that the differences are small, you kind of want to go skiing the race to see how it will be won.”

“Today I didn’t last until the end, but I’m sure someday I will.”

Mink however, reminded that sixth place is not bad at all. The Finn, who shot zeros, only regretted his speed distribution.

He dropped two places during the last ski round.

“In the last lap, we are talking about a margin of eight seconds. If I had been able to tighten that much, then we would be talking about a good race,” Minkkinen analyzed.

“I’m quite satisfied, and it was a good race anyway. The small clot in the last lap gives a small negative sign.”

Minkkinen is still amazingly second in the overall standings of the World Cup. He will start Sunday’s pursuit 28 seconds behind the leader.

Others on average, Finns had a slightly lower mood day.

Venla Lehtonen was the 52nd and, besides Minkkinen, the only Finn who survived the chase.

Inka Hämäläinen was 68, Noora Kaisa Keränen 75: with me Sonja Leinamo 92:s.