Ekaterina Avvakumova, a biathlon player, competes in the women's 4x6-kilometer relay in biathlon at the Asian Winter Games at Yabuli Ski Resort in Yabuli, China, Feb. 13. Reuters-Yonhap

Korea claimed the silver medal in the women's 4x6-kilometer relay in biathlon at the Asian Winter Games in China on Thursday, with a pair of foreign-born athletes contributing to the effort.

The team of Ekaterina Avvakumova, Mairya Abe, Ko Eun-jung and Jung Ju-mi finished the relay in second place with a time of 1:29:27.3 at Yabuli Ski Resort, 200 kilometers southeast of the main host city, Harbin.

China earned the gold medal in 1:29:06.3. Kazakhstan won the bronze medal in 1:30:01.9

This was the second medal for Avvakumova, who won the women's 7.5km sprint gold medal on Tuesday for Korea's first Winter Asiad biathlon title. She was born in Russia and became a Korean citizen in 2016.

Ko, Jung, and Abe, who was born in Japan to a Japanese father and a Korean mother, all picked up their first Asiad medals.

Korea ranked third at the 20km mark, trailing both China and Kazakhstan by more than 20 seconds, but made a strong push over the final stretch to get past Kazakhstan for the hard-earned silver. (Yonhap)