Shin Eui-hyun finishes 12th in men's biathlon sprint

Shin Eui-hyun competes in the men's sprint sitting para biathlon at the 2022 Winter Paralympic Games at the National Biathlon Centre in Beijing on Saturday. [YONHAP]

Korea's Shin Eui-hyun finished in 12th place in the para biathlon men's sitting sprint on Saturday, with countryman Won Yoo-min also finishing the race in 20th place.

Shin finished the race with a total time of 20 minutes and 46.9 seconds, finishing 1 minute and 55.4 seconds behind first place after a number of shooting penalties impacted his race. Won trailed behind in last place with a time of 25 minutes and 11 seconds, shooting well but struggling on the skiing parts of the race.

In para biathlon, athletes have to balance both skiing and shooting, completing a series of sprint races interspersed with shooting ranges where they have to try and shoot as accurately as possible while managing an elevated heartrate and adrenaline from the races.

Shin returned to the snow on Sunday to compete in the men's cross country long distance sitting 18-kilometer race, where he finished in eighth place.

There are three different medal contests in each skiing event: Visually impaired, standing and sitting. Within each event, athletes are classified based on their impairment, and the score takes these classifications into account.

In standing events, there are nine classifications, LW1 to LW9, while in sitting there are three, LW10 to LW12, and in visually impaired events there are three, B1 to B3. The numbers, or classification factors, indicate how much an athlete’s impairment is expected to affect their ability to compete in the sport.

Shin competes in sport class LW-12 for sit-skiers with normal or only slightly decreased trunk function and leg impairments. Won competes in LW11.5 for sit-skiers who have good abilities in their upper trunk, but very limited control in their lower trunk and hips.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]