LES ROUSSES, France, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- Marcin Zawol of Poland bagged the gold medal in the men's biathlon 7.5km sprint at the Winter Youth Olympic Games here on Tuesday.
In quite windy conditions, Zawol managed to suffer only one penalty in the shooting for a match-best time of 19 minutes and 23.8 seconds.
"The key to success was my shooting," said Zawol, adding that he didn't think about a top finish when waking up in the morning.
"I just try to focus on things that I can do everyday," he pointed out. "I tried to run faster in the last loop. Now I'm feeling happy that I can do this (win the gold medal)."
Russia's Denis Irodov finished second, 12.6 seconds behind Zawol. The bronze medal went to Norwegian Vegard Thon 18.5 seconds behind Zawol.
Shi Yuanyuan was China's highest-ranked biathlete after placing 57th. His compatriots Gou Zhendong and Liu Zhaoyu ranked 59th and 60th respectively among 96 finishers.
Below-par shooting performances were to blame for the Chinese trio's unfavorable rankings. Shi misfired four times when shooting in standing, while Gou missed all five shots in the same position.
