Troubled Ukraine strike gold in Sochi

Ukraine yesterday raced to a famous victory in the women’s team biathlon relay at the Sochi Olympics, overcoming the trauma of the violence at home to take gold with an inspirational performance. The team led from the start in the 4x6 km relay race, finishing in 1hr 10min 2.5sec, defeating second-place Russia by 26.4 seconds. Norway took the bronze. Ukraine’s anchorwoman Olena Pidhrushna was embraced in delight by her tearful teammates as she crossed the line. Vita Semerenko, a bronze medal winner earlier in the Games, started with fiery determination and her lead was bolstered by the little known Juliya Dzhyma on the second leg.

Valj Semerenko, twin sister of Vita, had a shaky final standing shooting, missing three targets, but Pidhrushna held her nerve to keep Russia’s Olga Vilukhina from taking the gold for the hosts.

There had been speculation that Ukraine’s team could even leave the Olympics because of the violence at home but the president of its Olympic Committee, former pole vault great Sergey Bubka, insisted they should stay to help unify the nation.

Until Friday, Ukraine had endured a relatively poor Games, with just the one bronze medal won by Semerenko in the women’s biathlon sprint. The athletes had not worn black armbands to remember the dead, in line with IOC stipulations that sports events should not be used for any kind of demonstrations.