The 30-year-old from Anykštės took 49th place (0+2) in the sprint on Thursday, and improved his position to 34th (0+0+1+0) in yesterday’s pursuit. Norwegian Johannes Thingnes Boe, who won the Planet Cup, became the winner of all three events.
“When I feel like this, I can’t judge the starts very well. It is as it is, I am glad that I managed to start in all distances in the last stage. Even though it is small, it is still a victory that I participated in the mass launch. One start is a little better, others are bad, but what can you do”, V. Strolia evaluated the performance in the last round.
In the overall standings of the World Cup, the best Lithuanian biathlete took 27th place (274 points). Ours managed to rise higher only once, last year, when the Lithuanian was classified 25th. During the season, V. Strolia won points in 16 out of 21 races, but all the top positions were recorded in the first part of the season.
“There were just some mistakes made during the preparation for the World Cup. There are mistakes on my part where it was overdone or unwisely done – I had a good lesson for the future. With this season learning, I will draw conclusions for next year because I know what doesn’t work and what works. I hope it will only be for the better”, hoped V. Strolia.
The Lithuanian was most successful in the joint start competition in Rūpolding, where he finished sixth. V. Strolia looked solid at the Planet Cup stage in Kontiolahti (8th place in the individual race, 11th place in the pursuit) and Hochfilzen (12th place in the sprint).
“I liked both the mass start in Rüpolding, Kontiolahtis and the French stage. Those high places were not very many, but there were positives. Those few higher places may be encouraging, but the fact that they are not in the second half of the season is not encouraging. The fact that expectations were higher, wanting a better season. However, a poor end to the season is more motivating for the next season than a good start. Overall, I rate the season between 6-7, I don’t want to say seven”, smiled V. Strolia.
Karolis Dombrovskis scored qualifying points in four competitions during the season, taking 70th place overall (best performance – 27th place in the Antholco sprint). Tomas Kaukėnais, who won the 34th position in the individual race of the World Championship, also managed to break into the top 40. True, credit points for places in the world championships were not distributed.
The Lithuanian men’s team took a historically high 14th place in the standings of the Nations Cup, and next season the Lithuanians will once more be able to delegate 4 biathletes to one competition. The women’s team, which consisted of Gabrielė Leščinskaitė and Natalija Kočergina, reached the 22nd position in the Nations Cup standings and won the country’s third World Cup quota.
The overall winner among women was Julia Simon of France. Lithuanian biathletes did not win credit points.
