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Suvi Minkkinen shot cleanly and eventually beat Erika Jänkä by 25 seconds. Photo: Esa Kinnunen.
Suvi Minkkinen and Ukraine's Denis Nasyko to victory in the Biathlon GP
Joutsan Pommin's Suvi Minkkinen opened the Kontiolahti GP race weekend with victory on Saturday. The shooting went clean, but the fines were very close.
"Penka's result was perhaps better than it deserved today. Today we went in through the edges and scored ten hits, so in itself quite satisfied," said Minkkinen, who also had a 25-second gap over Erika Jänkä, who also shot cleanly.
On Sunday, there is a new start in the GP races, but Minkkinen will only know his own commitment after sleeping overnight. Things will now be done under the conditions of the opening of the World Cup in Östersund, Sweden in a week.
"I got corona in the beginning of October, and there have been a few challenges with recovery since then. If the body recovers normally, and nothing miraculous happens during the evening and tomorrow morning, then I will be there tomorrow as well."
Beach three seconds from victory
Tuusula's Voima-Veikko's Jaakko Ranta was three seconds behind Ukraine's Denis Nasyko, who won the men's race and shot cleanly. Ranta, who missed one shot, was satisfied.
"I had a good race today. I was able to build an uphill ski, which I went to get. The shooting was really good - the rim hit was the one miss of the vertical shooting", summed up the runner-up of the day.
Tuusula's Voima-Veikkoin's Tuomas Harjula also shot one penalty from the upright and was ten seconds behind Ranna at the finish line.
"A perfectly balanced race. It started really well and after the taste it was a pretty good bow. Then it started to get a bit stiff, and I didn't have the strength for the last lap as I had expected," said Harjula.
In addition to the Finns and Ukrainians, the competition featured athletes from the Kazakhstan national team. The first starts of Sunday's sprint race are at 11 a.m.
- See all results of the day
- Watch the video interviews of Suvi Minkkinen and the men's top three on the event's Facebook or On Instagram walls
- Additional information about the race weekend
