Austria, 24 February 2019. PenzaNews. Student of Penza State University Alexander Bolshunov became the silver medalist of the World Ski Racing Championship in Austria on Saturday, February 23.

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In skiathlon at a distance of 30 kilometres he clocked a time of 1 hour 10 minutes 21.9 seconds, yielding 0.1 second in a tight race to Norwegian Sjur Roethe. Winner's fellow citizen Martin Sundby became the third losing 0.7 seconds to the leader.

In the women's race the bronze was won by Russian Natalia Nepryaeva.

Maria Istomina, PSU student, showed the 21st result at the first start of such a scale, the press service of the university informs.

For Alexander Bolshunov this was the second world championship in his career.

In 2017, in Lahti, he finished 26th in the sprint and 15th – in the skiathlon.