Tomingas comes in 23rd in first career mass start

Estonian biathlete Tuuli Tomingas participated in her first career mass start event in Oberhof, Germany, on Sunday, finishing 23rd in the 30-person race.
Tomingas started strong, passing the first two shooting rounds without a single miss, good enough for sixth place. The Estonian would have had a chance to get to second place with a perfect third round but she instead had to take two penalty laps. She missed another shot in the final round and took overall 23rd (3; +1:52.3) in her first career Super Sprint.
Tomingas told post-race: "Today's competition was relatively hard, but I also estimated that the pace of the top would be faster at first - it went well in that sense, I was able to keep up with them. Since [Oberhof's] trail profile is difficult to me and I feel it can be too much, it got difficult at the end."
"It was a special feeling to be among the best 30 in the world and compete in a mass start. To start in mass with the world's best has been my goal since I was young, but previous competitions have shown that it was going to happen at some point. I just needed a few succesful starts and it was not much of a surprise any more," Tomingas continued.
She was optimistic about next week's World Cup round in Antholz- Anterselva, Italy, where the trails are a better fit. "There are many trails in Anterselva that are suitable to me and I have always enjoyed competing there. I believe if I'm good in shooting, there could be a few good races there," Tomingas said.
French Julia Simon (40:11.1) took first place in Sunday's mass start, followed by Franziska Preuss (2; +3.9) and Hanna Oeberg (3; +11.7).
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Editor: Kristjan Kallaste