The final stage of the republican biathlon competition among children and teenagers for the prizes of the Presidential Sports Club “Snezhny Snaiper” ended today at the Republican Olympic Training Center for Winter Sports in Raubichi.

Every year “Snezhny Snaiper” is gaining more and more popularity and mass appeal. It was first held back in 2007. Young athletes first compete at school, district and oblast stages, and then the most accurate and fastest compete for awards in the republican finals. A special feature of the competition is that only biathlon fans who are not members of specialized educational and sports institutions participate in the tournament.

This year, more than 33 thousand children across the country competed in the preliminary stages, and 168 of the best children competed in the finals of the republican competition.

Those who demonstrate the highest results become potential candidates for enrollment in specialized educational and sports institutions. In the future, the country's national biathlon team will open its doors for them. So, let’s observe the results.

The guys demonstrated high class in mass start races and mixed relay races.

Among the winners of the mass starts in the group of boys aged 10-11, Minsk resident Alexey Mormel finished first. The second was Artem Bayev from the Mogilev oblast, and the third was Ilya Belous from the Brest oblast. Sofia Lastovskaya from Minsk won the junior age category among girls. Polina Savostenko from the Gomel oblast and Ulyana Kavrus from the Minsk oblast finished 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Among teenagers aged 12-13, Rodion Okatov from the Minsk oblast finished first, Evgeniy Masyuk from the Grodno oblast finished second, and the third was the Minsk resident Gleb Pisarenko. In the girls' competition, the best was Victoria Evseenko from the Mogilev oblast. She gunned down all the targets on the shooting range and beat Varvara Biketova from the Gomel oblast by more than half a minute. Bronze in this race went to Karolina Romanyuk from the Grodno oblast.

Yaroslav Petrushenko, representing the Gomel oblast, won the mass start among the older age group aged 14-15. Minsk residents Ivan Vishnevsky and Bogdan Verbilovich won silver and bronze. In turn, among the girls of this age group, Vladislava Okocha won the event. Following her, Diana Petrovskaya from the Grodno oblast and Daria Yanovskaya from the Minsk oblast crossed the finish line.

The program of the republican competitions among children and teenagers in biathlon ended with mixed relays.

The winner in the younger age group was the Minsk team, which included Violetta Dragneva, Alina Bartoshek, Alexander Shestak and Petr Dubrovsky. The guys from the Brest oblast took second place. This team includes Irina Kulnis, Ekaterina Konder, Zakhar Poluyan and Alexander Konder. Third place went to the Mogilev oblast, its participants were Daria Kovaleva, Veronika Vygovskaya, Denis Porshnev and Zakhar Pitkevich.

The strongest in the mixed relay in the age category of 12–13 years were again the Minsk residents - Diana Krivetskaya, Liana Golovachenko, Klim Gnedchik and Bohdan Bobrik.

Silver in the middle age group went to representatives of the Gomel region Milana Kharitonova, Valeria Mikhaltsova, Stanislav Tsepa and Maxim Tsalko, and the bronze award went to Nadezhda Evseenko, Kristina Baeva, Alexey Kovalenko and Roman Dashkevich from the Mogilev region.

In the mixed relay of older biathletes, the winners were Sofya Simonova, Daria Muraveiko, Nikita Matus and Matvey Korzhik. Biathletes from the Mogilev oblast - Ekaterina Kosacheva, Valeria Romanova, Pavel Kulevsky and Stanislav Khmelevsky finished second, and the snow snipers from the Minsk region consisting of Ekaterina Gospodarik, Polina Pleshko, Daniil Vasilevsky and Andrei Savich won bronze.

Cups, diplomas, cash certificates and prizes were presented to the winners and prize-winners by Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Igor Petrishenko, Minister of Education Andrei Ivanets, Minister of Sports and Tourism Sergei Kovalchuk, Chairman of the Belarusian Biathlon Federation Andrian Tsibulsky and Deputy Chairman of the Minsk City Executive Committee Artem Tsuran.

Congratulations to the winners and all participants of the republican biathlon competition among children and teenagers for the prizes of the Presidential Sports Club “Snezhny Snaiper” on their excellent sporting results! We wish you more achievements, passion for sports and stay positive!