Pidruchny: Sometimes my arm bothers me and I lack muscle strength

Leader of the Ukrainian men’s biathlon team Dmitry Pidruchny said that he had not yet fully recovered from the fracture, and therefore missed part of the races of the season.

“It was planned that at the European Championships I would miss the individual race. I’m not at all averse to running as an individual, I think I’ll run the next one.”

“The track here is quite difficult. The first part of it goes up, the second part goes down. The approach to the firing line is not very good, we need to work.”

“As for weather conditions, there is not much natural snow. There is enough of it on the track, but I saw in training that there is no full circle of 4 kilometers. On Wednesday the guys will run 6 laps of 3300 meters. In general, the track is prepared satisfactorily; it breaks down a little, but not catastrophically. The weather is positive during the day, minus at night.”

“I definitely plan to run a sprint, then we’ll see. I feel fine, but sometimes my arm still bothers me. I don’t have enough muscle strength yet. The hand has not yet been rehabilitated to the level it was before the fracture.”

Dmitry is the only one from the Ukrainian men’s team who will not compete in the individual race at the 2024 European Championships. Also, three leaders of the women’s team will not start – Kristina Dmitrenko, Anastasia Merkushina and Irina Petrenko, who did not arrive from Antholz in Italy at the required time.

The 2024 European Championships will take place in Brezno-Orsbly, Slovakia, from January 24 to 28. Individual races for men and women will take place on the first day of competition. The sprint in which Pidruchny plans to start will take place on Friday, January 26.