Biathlete Sam Cairns has vowed to immediately bounce back from the disappointment of his first outing at the European Youth Olympic Winter Festival.
Cairns was the top Brit of a trio that included Robert Sircus and Lachlan Cowie in the men’s 12.5km individual, coming home in a time of 49:44.5minutes for 69th.
But, it was not Cairns’ efforts on his skis that let him down in Brasov, but rather his disappointing bid with the rifle on the shooting range.
Every missed target added a minute onto his time and, after nine misfires overall, Cairns was left to count the cost of his wayward day’s shooting.
“I cannot afford to shoot that badly if I want to do well in a competition of this calibre,” he said.
“By my standards it went very badly out there and I really had to hit a lot more targets to have a chance of doing well.
“It’s frustrating because I felt like I skied quite well but my approach to the range was not great, my heart rate was too high each time and that’s what cost me.
“I was bad almost every time I got to the range and I cannot afford to be doing that but you have to try and learn from these experiences.
“The standard was just so high, every other athlete out there was very impressive and it makes me want to work harder to get to their level.”
All is not lost for Cairns out in Romania however with Thursday’s 7.5km sprint still to come and the 17-year-old is desperate to make amends right away.
“I have had some good results over the shorter distances so hopefully I can turn it around,” he added.
“The standard out here is very impressive indeed but if I can shoot a bit better then I should be in with a chance of climbing up the leaderboard.”
© Sportsbeat 2013