The Italian team won the mixed relay at the Biathlon World Cup in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic.

The Italian team, consisting of Dorothea Wierer, Lisa Vittozzi, Lukas Hofer and Tommaso Giacomel, achieved a time of 1 hour 3 minutes 11.7 seconds (0 penalties and 10 extra rounds). The second place was taken by the French team (Ocean Michelot, Justine Brezaz-Boucher, Oscar Lombardo, Quentin Fillon Maillet; backlog – 24.7 seconds; 0+7), the top three was completed by the Czech team (Essika Jislova, Tereza Vobornikova, Viteslav Hornig, Michal Krcmar; +57.2; 0+7).

In the single mixed relay, Germans Marlene Fichtner and Leonard Pfund took first place. However, the German team was later disqualified due to violating safety rules when handling a rifle – after the second shooting from a prone position, Fichtner incorrectly secured the weapon on her back.

After this decision, the victory went to the Finnish team, which was represented by Suvi Minkkinen and Tero Seppälä (34.59.8; 0+8). The second place was taken by the French Jeanne Richard and Emilien Claude (+11.3; 0+6), the third – by the Norwegians Uni Arnekleive and Martin Nevland (+16.7; 0+8).

The World Cup stage in Nove Mesto will end on Sunday with races from a general start.

Former figure skater Fedor Klimov spoke about how he coped with missing the 2018 Olympic Games in Pyeongchang.

Klimov, performing in tandem with Ksenia Stolbova, won a gold medal at the 2014 Olympic Games and also became a three-time Russian champion. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) did not allow the couple to participate in the 2018 Olympic Games.

— In general, I didn’t follow what was happening at the Games. And even then I didn’t rewatch the performances. I knew from hearsay what was happening and how, but nothing more. For me, this start didn’t exist; I couldn’t bring myself to be interested in it. I won’t say that I felt any strong upset, but rather total devastation. There were no emotions at all,” Klimov told RT.

Some time after missing the 2018 Olympics, the athlete retired. After that he started working as a coach.

Silver medalist of the Olympic Games in biathlon, Belarusian Anton Smolsky, won the pursuit race as part of the fourth stage of the Alfa-Bank Commonwealth Biathlon Cup, which takes place in Raubichi.

Smolsky covered the 12.5 km distance in 37 minutes 21.2 seconds, making two misses in four shooting ranges.

Second place was taken by Saveliy Konovalov (lag – 8.2 seconds; 2 misses), the top three was closed by Karim Khalili (+24.9; 0 misses).

On Sunday, a mixed relay will take place in Raubichi, starting at 13:45 Moscow time.

Watch the live broadcast of the competition from 13:35 (Moscow time) on the TV channels “Match TV” and “Match! Arena”, as well as the websites matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru.