Dmitri Iarochenko

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Dmitri Vladimirovich Iarochenko (Russian Дмитрий Владимирович Ярошенко, born 4 November 1976 in Makarov, Sakhalin oblast, Soviet Union) is a Russian biathlete who has finished second in four Biathlon World Cup races in his career, but is yet to win a race. He broke through during the 2006–07 season at the age of 30, after winning a European Championship silver medal in 2004.

Iarochenko is a military officer, and resides in Novosibirsk. He has been a biathlete since 1987, but it was in 2004 that he took his first major success, with silver in the individual distance at the European Championships in Minsk.

The follwoing season, he took his first World Cup points in a race in Khanty-Mansiysk in 2005, aged 28. Earlier in the season, he had finished third in the Summer Grand Prix events in Khanty-Mansiysk, on roller skis. Present at that meet were four of the six medallists from the 2004 World Championships. He also won an individual European Cup race in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

Iarochenko won three European Cup sprints in the 2005–06 season, and won the European Cup that year.^[1] He got one start in the World Cup before the 2006 Winter Olympics, finishing 24th and as the sixth-best Russian in a sprint in Oberhof. In total, Iarochenko appeared in eight World Cup races that season, with a best place of 13th in Holmenkollen, and with an overall place of 61st.

Iarochenko was selected for the World Cup team from the opening race of the 2006–07 season, and with a flawless shooting he entered the podium in his second start of the season, 15.5 seconds behind winner Ole Einar Bjørndalen in a sprint race in Östersund. Iarochenko finished as runner-up in two more races before the Christmas break, and was second in the overall World Cup after two weeks of competition. A poor performance in the third World Cup meet moved him down to third, but he was back to second after fifth and second place in Oberhof in the first meet after the break. At this point, he also led the pursuit Cup, where three of his four second places had been achieved. Also, Iarochenko had been part of the Russian relay team all season, and after three races they led the relay Cup by eleven points.