Shin finishes middle distance biathlon in 11th place

Shin Eui-hyun, back, and Won Yoo-min race in the para biathlon men's sitting middle distance race at the National Biathlon Centre in Beijing on Tuesday. [NEWS1]

Korea's Shin Eui-hyun finished in 11th place in the para biathlon men's sitting middle distance race on Monday, with countryman Won Yoo-min finishing the race in 17th place.

Shin finished the race with a real time of 34 minutes and 5.7 seconds, finishing 3 minutes and 28 seconds behind first place after the sport class calculations. Won trailed behind in 17th place with a time of 39 minutes and 57.7 seconds, finishing 8 minutes and 3.4 seconds behind. Won was the only competitor to finish the race without a single shooting penalty.

Both Shin and Won improved on their final positions from Saturday's biathlon sprint race, when Shin finished 12th and Won 20th.

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 heart rate and adrenaline from the races.

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]