Bulgarian biathlete Konstantin Vassilev took 57th place in the 12.5-kilometer pursuit at the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics. The 22-year-old Olympic debutant finished last with a time of 40:00.7 minutes, after making seven mistakes on the shooting range.
The other Bulgarian representative - Blagoy Todev, failed to reach the final. The 24-year-old competitor was closed with a lap after the third shooting, having already accumulated three misses, and remained outside the final standings. Todev started 42nd after the sprint with a deficit of two and a half minutes, while Vassilev started 56th, almost three minutes behind.
The Olympic title was won by Martin Ponsiluoma. The Swede, who started seventh, made only one mistake in the four shootings and finished in 31:11.9 minutes, winning the first Olympic gold of his career and the second medal after the silver in the mass start at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
Second came Sturla Holm Legrade (Norway), who with two misses remained 20.6 seconds behind the winner. This is his third distinction from the Games in Italy after the bronze medals in the 20 km individual discipline and in the sprint.
The bronze went to Emilien Jacquelin. The Frenchman, the world champion in the pursuit from Antholz-Anterselva 2020 and Pokljuka 2021, had a convincing lead before the last shot, but two mistakes deprived him of the gold and he remained third in 29.7 seconds with 17 targets down out of 20.
The defending champion from Beijing, Quentin Fillon-Mayet, failed to intervene in the distribution of medals this time. The leader after the sprint made five mistakes and finished seventh, 1:13.5 minutes behind the champion, despite already having two gold medals from Milano-Cortina - in the mixed relay and in the sprint - and a total of seven Olympic medals in his career.