Kazakhstan has won its first gold at 2015 Winter Universiade

Kazahkstan's Anastasia Slovona won the women's cross country skiing sprint in Štrbské Pleso, Slovakia on January 25.

Slovona's time is 3 minutes 22.75 seconds. She was 18 seconds faster than Evelina Marcisz of poland and 42 seconds clear of third-place Russia's Svetlana Nikolayeva, azh.kz refers to akipress.org.

Making the most of the excellent race conditions, Slovona, a 24-year-old sport and tourism student at the University of Almaty, dominated the 1.4km race to take the gold medal ahead of Ewelina Marcisz of Poland (silver) and Russia's Svetlana Nikolaeva (bronze).

With Almaty hosting the 28th Winter Universiade in 2017, Slovona's victory for Kazakhstan was a fitting way to get the first phase of this year's competition under way in the Slovakian ski resort.