site.btaBlagoy Todev 22nd in Men’s 20km Biathlon at Milano Cortina Olympics

Blagoy Todev delivered on Tuesday the best performance among the Bulgarian biathletes in the men’s 20km individual event at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games.

The 24-year-old finished 22nd in 56:34.9 minutes on the course in Antholz-Anterselva after making just two shooting errors, one in the first prone stage and one in the final standing stage. With a clean last shot, Todev would have placed 17th. In his second Olympic appearance, he recorded his best individual Olympic result.

The other four Bulgarians struggled on the shooting range and finished outside the top 60.

Anton Sinapov placed 69th in 1:00:50.1 hours with four misses. The most experienced athlete in the squad, 38-year-old Vladimir Iliev, competing at his fifth Olympic Games, and Winter Olympics debutant Konstantin Vasilev each made nine errors at the range.

Iliev, the world silver medallist in the discipline from Ostersund 2019, finished 75th in 1:01:22.8 hours, while Vasilev placed three positions lower in 1:01:55.1 hours. Both received nine penalty minutes due to their shooting mistakes.

The title went to 26-year-old Norwegian Johan-Olav Botn. He was one of only two athletes among the 89 starters to shoot perfectly, hitting all 20 targets to finish in 51:31.5 minutes. Botn claimed the most significant achievement of his career and won his first medal at a major championship.

France’s world champion Eric Perrot took silver after one miss in his second shooting stage, finishing 14.8 seconds behind the winner.

The bronze medal was won by Norway’s Sturla Holm Laegreid, world champion from Pokljuka 2021, who made one error in his third shooting stage and finished 48.3 seconds behind Botn.