22.III.2015
«The Big Crystal Globe trophy is mine!»

The final race of the women's biathlon season 2014/2015 was held today in Khanty-Mansiysk (Russia). The main intrigue of the day was to find out who is going to claim the Big Crystal Globe trophy, - Darya Domracheva or Kaisa-Leena Mäkäräinen. Throughout the season there were only two biathletes seriously competing for the World Cup title; and they did that fabulously! Kaisa started the season with great confidence and her advantage over Darya in general classification at some point reached one hundred points. However the Belarusian didn’t take note of points and talks, instead she was getting better and better with each start. This tactic paid out well as right before the final race of the season she was ahead of Kaisa by 33 points in the overall standings. The mass start was expected to be a good one, yet none of the two contenders for the Big Crystal Globe trophy stood on the podium that day (Darya Domracheva took 4th place; Kaisa-Leena Mäkäräinen took 13th place); but that couldn’t cast a single shadow over Darya as it was clear that the Big Crystal Globe - the only trophy Darya Domracheva was missing – finally belongs to her.

Darya Domracheva: «I’ve done it! The Big Crystal Globe is mine! Hooray! I pulled myself together psychologically and emotionally, and won. Despite the 4th place in today’s race I enjoyed it. Now I feel content; at last I can take a deep breath and relax! The season was intense until the very last day; on the one hand it’s quite cool to be one of those responsible for keeping the fans intrigued, however on the other hand I’m happy that I managed to bear the pressure. This was an amazing and challenging year for me, and I want to thank everyone who supported me. I am so happy I’ve met their expectations.

All I want to do now is to get some rest and cool off. It makes me feel proud when I think about biathlon nowadays as it’s a very intense and unpredictable sport that gives us so many emotions; and you can see how serious the competition gets each year. It’s the greatest sport ever».

It is the first Big Crystal Globe trophy in Darya Domracheva’s career. Previously, she was in the top ten six times: 2008/2009 season (7th place), 2009/2010 season (6th place), 2010/2011 season (6th place), 2011/2012 season (2nd place) 2012/2013 season (2nd place), 2013/2014 season (3rd place). The 2014/2015 season is yet her best as Darya won nine individual races and four pursuits. 

In the history of the Belarusian biathlon however this is the second Big Crystal Globe; the first one belongs to Svetlana Paramyguina who won the trophy in 1994.