Ukraine Kicks Off the Junior European Biathlon Championships: Women's Individual Race Results

The Ukrainian women stayed among the race leaders right to the end.

Team Ukraine's biathlon squad has begun its Junior European Championships campaign, running the girls' first individual race, held January 21 in Imatra.

At the start in Estonia, the national team was represented, as usual, by seven athletes: Valeriia Sheihas, Alina Khmil, Kseniia Prykhodko, Iryna Shevchenko, Viktoriia Khvostenko, Tetiana Tarasiuk, and Polina Putsko. Six of the Ukrainian women made the race's top 20. Ahead of the continental championship, Team Ukraine's women's squad also had their most successful Junior IBU Cup season in history, winning six medals and taking provisional first place in the Nations Cup standings.

How Team Ukraine Ran Their First Individual Race at the Junior European Championships in Imatra

• Six Team Ukraine representatives shot cleanly at the first stage, five of them in the top 10. Only Tetiana Tarasiuk picked up two penalty minutes, falling outside the top 40.
• After the first standing stage, Shevchenko, Khmil, and Prykhodko held their leading positions — all within the top five, even as Alina and Kseniia each missed once.
• Shevchenko and Prykhodko came out of the next stage in second and third, respectively. Alina Khmil added one more miss to her tally but kept her spot in the top six.
• The final standing stage didn't go the national team's way: Prykhodko, Khmil, and Shevchenko all missed twice, while their rivals shot cleaner. Valeriia Sheihas, meanwhile, shot clean, joining her teammates in the top 10.
• As a result, six Ukrainian representatives finished in the top 20, though none of them made the flower ceremony. The junior European individual race champion was Sweden's Greta Lindqvist Sjödahl, who shot flawlessly across all four firing stages and finished nine seconds ahead of her closest pursuer.

Junior European Championships Individual Race, Girls, 12.5 km: Results

1. Greta Lindqvist Sjödahl, Sweden (0+0+0+0) 41:31.2

2. Tamara Molentova, Czech Republic (0+2+0+0) +9.0

3. Michaela Straková, Czech Republic (1+0+0+1) +36.3

…

8. Kseniia Prykhodko, Ukraine (0+1+0+2) +1:12.7

9. Valeriia Sheihas, Ukraine (0+2+1+0) +1:23.5

12. Tetiana Tarasiuk, Ukraine (2+1+1+0) +1:49.8

13. Iryna Shevchenko, Ukraine (0+0+0+2) +1:54.3

15. Viktoriia Khvostenko, Ukraine (0+2+1+0) +2:02.1

17. Alina Khmil, Ukraine (0+1+1+2) +2:08.4

26. Polina Putsko, Ukraine (0+3+1+1) +3:59.2

In total, the Junior European Championships run across four competition days, January 21–25. Alongside the individual race, the continental championship also includes sprints, mixed relays, and Mass Start 60 races.

The championship's next event in Imatra is the men's individual race, starting January 21 at 14:15 Kyiv time.

DeTalks is covering Ukrainian athletes' results at the Junior European Biathlon Championships 2026. Follow text coverage in the 'Pulse' section and news on the editorial team's Telegram-channel.