The Finnish Hand hosted the 15 km men's individual classic style race as part of the first stage of the Ski World Cup.
Unlike Friday's sprints, this time the Russians managed to please their fans.
The second and third places were taken by Alexey Chervotkin and Alexander Bolshunov.
The victory was won by the Norwegian Johannes Hösflot Klebo.
Chervotkin started at number 26, while both Klebo and Bolshunov, for whom the individual race is one of the crown disciplines, started in the last group, which allowed them to focus on the time of their opponents.
Prior to their entry into the race, Chervotkin demonstrated high speed and was in the lead in intermediate cutoffs, which helped him finish in the intermediate first place.
However, when Klebo reached the distance, the situation changed.
The Norwegian did not save energy and from the very first kilometers made a serious claim for victory.
In total, it took 34 minutes 4.6 seconds to complete the Klebo distance.
The lag of Chervotkin was 15.2 seconds, Bolshunov - 18 seconds.
It is worth noting that a native of the Kirov region for the first time climbed the podium in personal starts at the World Cup stages, although he often helped his team in relay races.
A funny episode happened right after the finish.
During the traditional photo session of the winners of the race, Bolshunov deliberately moved away from Klebo, pretending to maintain a social distance.
The rival did not take offense at the joke and laughed together with the Russian.
In addition to Bolshunov and Chervotkin, three more domestic skiers entered the top ten in the Saturday race.
The seventh, eighth and ninth places were taken by Ilya Semikov, Evgeny Belov and Ilya Poroshkin.
Ivan Yakimushkin, Andrey Melnichenko and Yermil Vokuev are on the 13th, 18th and 21st lines.
Gleb Retivykh, for whom the main specialization is sprint, came to the 50th and last among Russians to the finish line.
As for the lineups in the overall standings of the mini-round, which takes place as part of the stage in Ruka, Bolshunov was able to move up to second place, but his gap from Klebo increased to 26 seconds.
That is how much the Russian will have to play at the start of Sunday's 15 km pursuit to celebrate the victory at the end of the weekend.
Chervotkin also retains a chance to become a medalist of the mini-round, losing 24 seconds to Emil Iversen, who is in third place.
The senior coach of the Russian men's national team, Yuri Borodavko, was pleased with the results of the wards.
At the same time, he called the victory of Klebo logical, who, according to him, was in good shape.
“The second place for Chervotkin is very happy for me, as for him this is the first personal podium.
I think this will add to him a certain optimism and confidence in his results.
According to Bolshunov, it was clear that it was hard for him, but at the finish he made a powerful leap - from fifth place he moved to third in a very sharp struggle.
Still, the most important start is the World Championship, which will be held at the end of February - beginning of March, we are counting on the peak of the form, ”explained Borodavko to Sport24.
The last start of the first stage of the World Cup in Ruka will take place on Sunday.
Skiers will compete for medals in the 15 km pursuit race in skating style.
“Tomorrow there will be a pursuit race, we will try to bypass Klebo.
We will strive for this, but the race will show everything.
Let's not forget that there are also other rivals, ”Wartko promised.
The women's individual 10 km race turned out to be extremely interesting, although mediocre for the Russians.
Tatiana Sorina was one of the last among the favorites, when the Norwegian Teresa Johaug and young Swedes Frida Karlsson and Ebba Anderson had already taken places in the top three.
Throughout the distance, the native of Tyumen claimed the first award in her career at the World Cup.
Sometimes she was ten seconds ahead of Anderson, and this should have been enough to finish in the prizes.
But in the last kilometers, when all the work on the rise had already been completed, Sorina began to lag behind.
As a result, the stopwatch recorded that she was only 0.1 seconds behind Anderson.
But for an athlete who has never made it into the top ten in individual races before, fourth place can also be considered an excellent result.
According to a similar scenario, the race developed for Natalia Nepryaeva.
She also quickly covered the first kilometers of the distance, but slowed down to the finish line.
The final spurt of the Russian woman did not work out, and she took fifth place.
At the same time, Nepryaeva tried not to lose the seconds valuable for the overall standings of the mini-round, and she will start the Sunday pursuit race second, 16 seconds later than Johaug.
Simultaneously with the Russian woman, Karlsson will go the distance.
Sorina will only lose three seconds to them, so she will have a chance not to wait for the next stage in Davos, in order to finally rise to the podium.
By the way, Johaug also noted her shape and rapid leap to the status of one of the best skiers at the moment.
She stated that she was glad to have a new strong rival.
“It's incredibly great.
I heard that last weekend she performed well in Russian races.
It's nice to see new names emerge.
We need it, "- quoted by Johaug Sport24 with reference to the Norwegian portal Dagbladet.