Kuzmina tastes third Winter Olympic gold in biathlon mass start

PyeongChang Feb 17 (IANS) Anastasiya Kuzmina of Slovakia won her third gold medal at the Winter Olympic Games with her victory in biathlon women s 12.5km mass start at the PyeongChang Games here on Saturday.

Kuzmina has equalled for the most gold medals in Summer and Winter Games representing Slovakia after she clocked a match-best 35 minutes and 23 seconds with just one penalty in shooting reports Xinhua news agency.

Kuzmina became the second biathlete and the first woman to win an individual medal in all four events after Norway s legend Ole Einar Bjoerndalen.

"This race was really hard for me and I was really tired but now I am so happy " said Kuzmina the 10km pursuit and 15km individual silver medallist in PyeongChang.

"I was happy with two silvers but today I was really relaxed and wasn t thinking about if I win a medal. I just competed and enjoyed this race " she added.

Defending champion Darya Domracheva of Belarus finished second. Norway s Tiril Eckhoff sat third the same result as four years ago in Sochi.

--IANS
pur/vm