The Ukrainian team was represented by Yuliya Dzhima and Dmytro Pidruchny.
On Saturday, December 28, the traditional annual Christmas Biathlon Race took place in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.
Ten teams took part in it, including the Ukrainian national team, for which Yulia Dzhima competed. and Dmitry Pidruchnyi.
The Christmas race consisted of two parts of the mixed relay – mass start and pursuit. The winners were determined by the results of the pursuit.
The Ukrainians finished the mass start in third place. Norway came in first, France came in second.
In the pursuit, the “blue-yellows” failed to stay in the top three. The Ukrainian duo finished in seventh place.
The Norwegians Caroline Knotten and Sturla Laegreid won the Christmas race. The other two places on the podium were chosen by German pairs: Anna Weidel and Justus Strehlow took second place, and Franziska Preuss and Philipp Nawrath came in third.
2024 Christmas Biathlon Race: Results
1. Caroline Knotten/Sturla Laegreid (Norway) 33:56.7 minutes
2. Anna Weidel/Justus Strehlow (Germany) +30.4
3. Franziska Preuss/Philipp Nawrath (Germany) +33.1
4. Lotte Li/Florent Claude (Belgium) +34.8
5. Anna Magnusson/Esper Nelin (Sweden) +36.1
6. Julia Simon/Fabien Claude (France) +1:56.3
7. Yulia Jima/Dmitry Pidruchny (Ukraine) +2:07.7
8. Polona Klemencic/Jakov Fak (Slovenia) +2:10.5
9. Jessica Islova/Michal Krcmar (Czech Republic) +2:14.3
10. Baiba Bendika/Andrejs Rastorgujevs (Latvia) +2:37.1
This is already the third time that Dzhima and Pidruchnyi have taken part in the Christmas race together. Last year, Yulia and Dmitry finished fifth in the show race in Gelsenkirchen.
Overall, Ukraine took part in the Christmas race for the seventeenth time, winning twice. In 2008, this was achieved by Andriy Deryzemlya and Oksana Khvostenko, and in 2014, by Sergey Semenov and Valentina Semerenko. The “blue-yellows” climbed onto the podium six times.
