Viktoriia Khvostenko Wins Bronze in the Individual Race at the 2026 Junior World Biathlon Championships

This is the national team's second medal of the championship.

Viktoriia Khvostenko finished third in the youth women's individual race at the Junior World Biathlon Championships, bringing the national team its second medal of the championship. Besides Khvostenko, Ukraine in the women's race was represented by Alina Khmil, Sofiia Svystun, and Khrystyna Ruda.

The day before, Taras Tarasiuk won silver in the youth men's individual race, while the junior men's team finished outside the scoring zone.

DeTalks is covering Ukrainian athletes' results at the 2026 Junior World Biathlon Championships. Follow the editorial team's Telegram channel to stay on top of the latest news.

How the Youth Women's Individual Race at the 2026 Junior World Biathlon Championships Went for Team Ukraine

• The first Ukrainian to start the rainy race was Viktoriia Khvostenko. The biathlete cleared all the targets at the first shooting stage, moving up to a provisional second, just 0.4 seconds behind the leader.
• After one miss at the standing stage, Khvostenko dropped out of the top three, but shot clean at the next two stages, regaining a position and finishing third.
• Alina Khmil missed once at each shooting stage, trailing by over three minutes after the last one. She finished the race in the top 10, 3.5 minutes behind the winner.
• Sofiia Svystun started with bib number 80. The biathlete missed once at each of the first two stages, and didn't clear three targets at the third. Despite a clean final stage, Svystun finished 67th.
• Khrystyna Ruda, like Viktoriia Khvostenko, raced with one miss at the standing stage, but a slower pace on the course left her finishing in the top 30 of the individual race.

The race was won by Slovakia's Michaela Straková, who beat silver medalist Hanna Volstad by over a minute.

2026 Junior World Biathlon Championships Individual Race, Youth Women, 10 km: Results

1. Michaela Straková, Slovakia (1+0+0+0) +33:15.4

2. Hanna Volstad, Norway (1+0+0+2) +1:05.6

3. Viktoriia Khvostenko, Ukraine (0+1+0+0) +1:19.7

...

10. Alina Khmil, Ukraine (1+1+1+1) +3:30.9

30. Khrystyna Ruda, Ukraine (0+1+0+0) +5:58.5

67. Sofiia Svystun, Ukraine (1+1+3+0) +9:55.5

Next up is the junior women's individual race. Start time: 15:10 Kyiv time.