MOSCOW, Mar 12 Norway's Vetle Sjostad Christiansen wins mass start at stage of the Biathlon World Cup, which takes place in the Estonian Otepää. The athlete covered the distance in 34 minutes 29.6 seconds without allowing a single miss. The second place was taken by the Frenchman Quentin Fillon-Maillet (lag — 5.9 seconds; 1 miss), the third was another representative of Norway, Sivert Bakken (+15.5; 1 miss). Russian and Belarusian biathletes do not take part in competitions in Otepää. Earlier, the executive committee of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recommended that sports federations not allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete due to the aggravation of the situation in Ukraine. After that, the International Biathlon Union (IBU) suspended Russian athletes from participating in competitions. The Russian Biathlon Union reported that it would defend the rights of athletes in court.
