“We had so many chances”: the Russians could not win medals in the individual biathlon World Cup

Shooting problems and excuses Yurlova-Perkht

After the successful start of the World Cup and two medals won by Alexander Loginov, fans were optimistic about the women's individual race. Firstly, the Russians showed a good move in the pursuit. Secondly, Ekaterina Yurlova-Percht in this form took the gold of the championship of the planet in 2015. And given the form in which an experienced athlete arrived in Anterselva, one could expect from her at least a fight for rewards.

But, unfortunately, this time the shooting failed the girls. It would seem that it was in this component that they did not have problems during the season. The speed of the Russians was not always pleasing, but at the firing lines they were accurate.

However, at the World Cup, the accurate shooting of women had to be forgotten. They approached the individual race, in total having 27 misses in the liabilities. After her statistics has deteriorated significantly. So, with old problems on a rack Yurlova-Perkht again faced. If on the bench it was accurate, then on the counter did not immediately close three targets. But even with one blot Catherine could be the second.

“I was very tuned in for this race. I understood that with my current move you can show a good result. The emphasis was on shooting. Lying down everything worked out, but on the counter I can’t find myself yet. But even after two mistakes she realized that she needed to fight. What is the difficulty of shooting in Anterselva? Height affects the body. Sometimes you don’t feel how the muscles work, ”said the biathlete on Match TV.

“Afflicted by excitement or mountains”

Mironov and Kuklina made four misses each. Svetlana, like Yurlova-Perkht, had traditional troubles at the counter, but Larisa’s work at the frontiers was an unpleasant surprise. In Anterselva, the most reliable athlete of the women's team in this component makes a mistake after a miss (only ten).

Finally, Starykh completely left five targets unclosed at once. She started the race under the last 100th number and the first line went to zero, which immediately helped her to join the fight for medals. Unfortunately, at the next lines she missed, and at the last - all three.

At the same time, rivals gave the Russians a great opportunity to climb the podium. Only the 15th with four misses finished Tiril Eckhoff, the 21st remained Kaisa Mäkäräinen, the fastest Denise Herrmann did not close the four targets traditionally.

As for the speed of domestic athletes, here Starykh was noted with a plus sign. She showed the 16th move (+1: 24.8) and in this component lost only to Yurlova-Perkht (+1: 19.9).

But the transformation of Mironova in the pursuit was temporary. In the individual, Svetlana showed only the 22nd move and again lost a lot on the last lap. Kuklina completely lost Herrmann for almost two minutes.

It is possible that some of the girls might just get tired, especially the Old and Yurlova-Perkht, who have already run four races in Anterselva. But the young Kristina Reztsova coaching staff has not yet provided a chance. And the president of the RBU, Vladimir Drachev, after the finish claimed that the main hopes lay on the Old and Kuklina.

“I would say that this is a race of unused opportunities, because we had so many chances. Our girls can shoot, probably the excitement or the mountains affected, because they have a very good move, they added everything to it. Hope was on the Old Ones and Kuklin. They did the skiing, and the girls didn’t finish the shooting component, ”complained Drachev.

Dorothea Wierer was again able to celebrate the victory. Many wrote off the Italian after two misses on the first frontiers, but subsequently she made no mistakes and improved the time by two seconds at the finish without Vanessa Hinz having closed only one target. In turn, the German woman for the first time in her career went up to the World Cup podium. The hostess of the competition has already won three awards (two gold and one silver).

But Marte Olsbu Ruisland won the fourth. She excelled with the Norwegian team in the mixed relay, then won the sprint and, finally, took bronze in the pursuit and individual.