Bulgaria failed in the 4 x 6 km relay in Beijing
Photo: Getty Images
Bulgaria started its participation in Winter Olympics in biathlon, but this first start was not at all successful for our page! Our team was led by Milena Todorova, Maria Zdravkova, Vladimir Iliev and Dimitar Gerdjikov, and a very strong and changeable wind was blowing on the track in Beijing.
Milena Todorova started in the first position from 17th place, but the bad shooting opened a big difference with the leaders at the beginning of the competition. Our girl still passed the baton to Maria Zdravkova and Bulgaria was in 16th place, but subsequently we were ‘closed’ with a whole tour and according to the rules we had to stop participating in the competition before we could see Vladimir Iliev in third place .
*In the end, after a much-contested final sprint, the gold medal went to Norway, the silver to France (+0.9 seconds) and the bronze to Russia (+1.5 seconds).
Here is how it went until the moment when Bulgaria was still in the “game”:
Milena Todorova started on the first post with the 17th competition number (out of 20 teams). The main group quickly broke up and the biathletes entered the shooting range at different times. Milena made a mistake from the position of lying down, which will be corrected by two rounds and came out in 13th place – 35 seconds behind the current leaders of Italy!
In the second lap the difference between the competitors became even bigger. Milena Todorova slowed down a lot from the right position and in the end she failed to shoot down 3 of her targets. Thanks to the extra ammunition, she knocked down 2 more, but had to go one penalty lap, then came out below №17 per minute and 55 seconds behind.
Todorova handed over the baton to Maria Zdravkova in 2 minutes and 20 seconds behind the new leader of Norway and below №16 in the standings.
Before her first supine shot, Maria had lost many seconds and was under №19. The strong wind hindered all the teams, and then only one girl made a mistake and with the first extra cartridge she knocked down the last target, and then regained the 16th place!
Maria Zdravkova’s second visit to the shooting range was not covered by the live broadcast, but we can judge that it did not go well, as the Bulgarian was subsequently ‘closed’ with a whole tour of the third post already handed over at the top and that meant only one – Bulgaria must stop its participation in the relay!