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Ekaterina Avvakumova wins silver medal at Asiad with biathlon relay team

Published: 13 Feb. 2025, 13:52 Updated: 13 Feb. 2025, 16:46

PAIK JI-HWAN
[email protected]

Korean biathlete Ekaterina Avvakumova competes in the women's 4x6-kilometer relay race at the Asian Winter Games at Biathlon Stadium in Yabuli, China on Feb. 13. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

Russia-born Korean Ekaterina Avvakumova won a silver medal with Ko Eun-jung, Abe Mariya and Jung Ju-mi in the women’s 4x6-kilometer biathlon relay race at the Asian Winter Games on Thursday, winning her second medal in the tournament after becoming the first Korean biathlete to claim gold earlier in the competition.

The Korean quartet finished the relay race at 1:29.27.3, 21 seconds behind host China at Biathlon Stadium in Yabuli. Kazakhstan finished third at 1:30:01.9.

Biathlon is a sport that combines cross-country skiing with rifle shooting. Athletes ski through a cross-country trail with shooting rounds interspersed throughout.

The women’s 4x6-kilometer relay race is a contest in which one biathlete covers a certain distance and passes the baton to the next teammate, while also participating in shooting.

Thursday’s silver marks Team Korea’s second medal in biathlon. Avvakumova earned the country’s first medal in the sport this year, as she became the first Korean biathlete to top the podium at the Asiad with her gold in the women’s 7.5-kilometer sprint on Tuesday.

That gold was also the highest honor Avvakumova has achieved since becoming a Korean citizen through special naturalization in 2016.

The Korea Biathlon Union requested that the Ministry of Justice allow her to become a Korean citizen, as the union reportedly attempted to expand its athlete pool for the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics.

That call proved to be a success for Korea's biathlon campaign in Pyeongchang, as Avvakumova recorded the joint highest finish among Koreans in Olympics history. She finished 16th in the 15-kilometer individual race.

Avvakumova also represented Korea at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, but failed to surpass her Olympic record and returned home empty-handed. But her gold medal and silver in Thursday’s relay race suggest that Korea still has a future in biathlon.

Thursday’s silver medal comes in the penultimate day of this year’s Asiad, where Team Korea has amassed over 30 medals to sit in second on the medal rankings behind China as of press time Thursday.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN [[email protected]]