One step higher: Russian biathletes won two silver medals at the World Cup in Hochfilzen

Silver after three stages of leadership

The second day of the Biathlon World Cup in Hochfilzen opened with the women's relay. After the race in Ostersund, the composition of the Russian national team underwent changes, both by name and by arrangement. Kristina Reztsova, who took 19th place in the sprint, got the right to speak for the first time in the team and start the race at the first stage. Her former finisher Larisa Kuklina was to follow her. The failure of the athlete, who became only 69th the day before, did not bother the coaches - her mistakes were made for technical reasons. The third stage went to the bronze medalist of the sprint Svetlana Mironova, and Ekaterina Yurlova-Perkht fell to finish the competition.

Reztsova's debut in relay races turned out wonderful. The 23-year-old athlete passed both firing lines cleanly without spending a single extra round, while the rivals had to correct their mistakes for a long time. After the shooting, the Italian rival Liza Vittozzi became the closest rival to Reztsova. It became clear that at least until the third stage, her team will be the main competitor of the Russians - Dorothea Wierer acted in the second stage for tactical reasons.

If you forget about the troubles with the shooting, then Kuklina alone lost 46 seconds in the sprint to the World Cup leader. But on Saturday there was no noticeable difference in speed between them, and on the firing lines the Russian was much more accurate than the Italian. Absolutely clean shooting lying down, just one miss at the counter - Kuklin completed his stage almost simultaneously with Wierer. Before the second shooting, German Denise Herrman was still holding on to them, but she earned three penalty laps, and the German team had a second disaster in these competitions - on the eve of the first time, none of the girls scored cup points, and in the relay they finally showed the worst in their stories 12th result.

In the third stage, Mironova and Nicole Gontier fought for first place, and the Russian woman was the favorite in this pair. She played a few seconds at a distance with every kilometer, and shot faster. At the counter, Mironova made the fans nervous, making three misses, but she still managed to avoid the penalty loop. The Russian team continued to confidently lead and ahead of the closest pursuers by 25 seconds.

By the time Yurlova-Percht set off, the winners of the stage in Ostersund and the current world champions from Norway rose to second place. Tiril Eckhoff accomplished a real feat in the third stage, raising her team from 12th place. After her, Marte Olsbu-Royselann began to work miracles.

In the first two laps, the Norwegian continued to lose for about half a minute to Yurlova-Perkht, but after the second shooting she reduced the gap to 15 seconds, and then literally a few hundred meters caught up with the Russian woman and went ahead. The crazy jerk of the Norwegian brought her country the third consecutive gold in relay races - this has not happened with the Scandinavians since 1993. After the finish, Yurlova-Percht admitted that she did not expect this from Olsbu-Royselann.

“I had no special tactics. There was no time to get involved. As soon as Svetlana passed the baton to me, I decided to run to the fullest, because I was worried about my shooting. I thought that if I kept a good speed at a distance, I could create a small advantage. It is very disappointing that today there was not enough strength on the last lap. The victory was so close. When she left for the last lap, the coaches shouted that the gap was 12 seconds. I thought it was a very big advantage for such a short circle. I didn’t think that Marte would catch up with me so quickly, ”the biathlete told the Championship.

The Russians, who led almost the entire race, were left with silver, which can also be considered an excellent result - for the first time in three years in the women's biathlon races, the Russians climbed the podium twice in a row. At the same time, in Cuba of nations, the team rose to third place and even more confidently claims to return the full quota for personal races.

Second place Loginov in the race and the World Cup

If the medal in the women's relay for Russian fans was partly unexpected, then in the men's pursuit, it was almost mandatory. As a result of the sprint for Alexander Loginov and Matvey Eliseev, there was a great situation for one of them to be on the podium for the second time in a season. Loginov started third in the race, losing from the start to the Norwegian Johannes Be 15 seconds, and the Frenchman Simon Detieu - only seven. Eliseev set off six seconds after his compatriot.

Boe, as the leader of the World Cup, immediately began to break away from all rivals, without slowing down the pace in any section of the 12.5-kilometer distance. The Norwegian supported his speed with impeccable shooting, which is why the pursuit of him became a meaningless task. The rest of the race participants had to fight only for silver.

At the first shooting range, the Child made one slip, immediately rolling away far from the leadership position. A group of persecutors was formed by Loginov, Eliseev, the Norwegian Tarja Boe and the Italian Lucas Hofer. The four of them were just as accurate on the second lay.

Their slender quartet crashed only when standing. The eldest of the Boe brothers went to the penalty loop, while Eliseev and Hofer lingered a bit at the shooting range, skipping Loginov ahead. The Italian immediately eliminated the backlog, and Eliseev remained a little distance from both of them - he was already short of strength. At the same time, he could still qualify for a medal in case of accurate shooting.

The fourth firing line removed all questions about the winner and the silver medalist. Boe closed all 20 targets much sooner than anyone could at least drop into a shooting range. For the tenth time in his career, the Norwegian won the pursuit right after the sprint, and this season he achieved success for the third time. Beau Jr. continued to create a break in the overall World Cup standings, so that while skipping the January stages, he would retain chances for the Big Crystal Globe.

Silver went to Loginov. Like the Norwegian, he reached a maximum in shooting and never missed the target. But the closest pursuers were not so accurate. Hofer earned two penalties, Eliseev went one, and after that he completely wilted and began to miss one opponent after another, eventually being 11th right after Martin Fourcade. Loginov could no longer worry about his tenth career medal and first silver this season.

“In this race, and at the moment, Be impossible to overtake, if he does not miss, 100% is impossible. In general, I think this is real, because everyone makes mistakes. In individual races, he can afford a penalty loop, others can’t. It is very difficult to fight with him. He is very strong. I’m glad that I’ve walked a distance of zero for two days in a row. But today it was only possible to fight for second place, because Johannes was impeccable. The second and third circles I followed Hofer and Tarja Boe. They had a high pace. I'm glad I stayed with them, ”Loginov said after the finish.

On the last lap, only the winner of the bronze medal was determined. She went to the Frenchman Emilienne Jacqueline. He climbed the podium from 18th place. For Loginov, the agility of a young biathlete was on hand - he beat not only Jacob Fak, but also Child, who lost the second place in the overall standings of the World Cup to a Russian. Again, as at the end of last season, Johannes Boe is the leader in points, and Loginov is second only to the Norwegian.