They put the compilers in their belts: Babikov and Slivko won big mass starts at the Russian Cup stage in Izhevsk

The fourth stage of the Russian Biathlon Cup in Izhevsk ended with large mass starts, which brought interesting results.

Thus, on the podium among men there was not a single representative of the national team from among those undergoing centralized training, and among women, only Larisa Kuklina, who took third place, defended the honor of the national team.

Much hope was placed on Eduard Latypov, who last won a victory back in December - at the Commonwealth Cup stage in Ufa.

In Izhevsk, he became third in the individual race, and in the sprint he didn’t even get into the top six, so the leader of the Russian team had more than enough motivation.

Naturally, he led the race from the first kilometers, Belarusian Maxim Vorobey was next to him, and Kirill Bazhin was behind him.

Also within five seconds of the leader were Alexander Loginov, Evgeny Sidorov and Dmitry Lazovsky.

However, after the first firing line it became clear that Latypov was unlikely to win the long-awaited victory.

He missed three times and fell back into the third ten athletes.

Bazhin’s shooting didn’t go well either, as he made two misfires.

Sparrow, although he got by with one penalty lap, lost a lot in speed and also dropped out of the fight for awards.

The leadership was taken by Lazovsky, Loginov and Sidorov, who almost simultaneously hit all the targets and went into the distance.

Their closest pursuers were Vasily Tomshin and Anton Babikov.

The silver medalist in the sprint race, although he did not clear one target, was a very good mover.

And with further shooting, everything was pretty good for the ex-world champion.

He took full advantage of Sidorov’s misfire at the second firing line and came into third place behind the tandem of leaders - Lazovsky and Loginov, who shot without mistakes.

At the same time, Anton did not rush after them: he completed the lap between shootings at his own pace, maintaining a gap of 23 seconds.

The top three did not change even after the third shooting range, since all the contenders for victory made one mistake.

Meanwhile, Vorobey and Viktor Plitsev became the best among the pursuers, but they were no longer able to get closer to the leaders.

The final shooting was decisive in the fight for gold, as it turned the situation that had been in place for a long time upside down.

Both Loginov and Lazovsky could not cope with the gusts of wind at the stadium and made two mistakes each, while Babikov worked flawlessly at the turn.

He was in no hurry, but he also didn’t aim longer than necessary, covered all the targets in the same rhythm and rushed to the first victory of the new year.

Anton's gap from his competitors at the exit from the stadium was 45 seconds, which allowed the biathlete not to suffer too much on the last lap.

After the race, he admitted that he didn’t even remember taking the last shots on the stand.

“I saw in my peripheral vision that they didn’t hit, so I fired more concentratedly.

If they had shot zero, I would have taken more risks.

I made a stupid mistake on the third line, so I quickly switched from analyzing how they shot in order to avoid making the same mistake and shoot correctly,” Babikov said on Match TV.

In the fight for silver, it was not difficult for Lazovsky to beat Loginov, for whom speed on the track is not his strongest quality.

In addition, the loose snow in Izhevsk did not play into the hands of such a large athlete as Alexander.

After the race, the biathlete complained that it was difficult for him to even raise his arms.

“It’s hard, yes.

I bumped into it.

The bundles, apparently, are not yet ready for such weather.

It’s okay, you just have to get used to it,” he noted.

Among the girls, Elizaveta Kaplina and Victoria Slivko took the lead in the race, and Irina Kazakevich and Ekaterina Noskova joined them in the first shooting.

The last three performed flawlessly on the bench, but Kaplina suffered the same fate as Latypov - she missed three times and fell back into the second ten.

Larisa Kuklina also shot without errors, but she was much inferior to her rivals in terms of speed - at the 5.2 km cut-off her gap was 21 seconds.

On the second prone, Noskova dropped out of the trio of leaders, missing two targets, and Vladislava Gavrilova took her place.

Kazakevich, although she ran a penalty loop, retained third position, and Slivko was first with a decent margin of 20 seconds.

The intrigue in the race finally died after the third shooting range, when Victoria was practically the only participant who managed without mistakes.

The advantage over Irina was almost a minute, and only some accident could prevent Slivko from winning gold.

The only mistake in the final stance, of course, did not become such an obstacle.

The fight for silver and bronze took place very far behind Slivko.

When approaching the fourth shooting, Polina Shevnina was 10.5 seconds behind Kazakevich and more than a minute ahead of Kuklina.

But it’s not without reason that the standing position is considered a stumbling block for the silver medalist of the Beijing Olympics.

Irina managed to make three misfires and missed out not only on silver, but also on bronze.

Shevnina took two penalty loops, which was enough for Kuklina to beat her at the exit from the shooting range by 3.4 seconds.

As a result, on the last lap there was a serious fight between the girls for second place.

Polina made several attempts to overtake her opponent, but Larisa did not give up, and only on the final descent did Shevnina manage to achieve what she wanted and achieve the finishing acceleration.

Kuklina was no longer able to catch up with her.

At the end of the race, Polina noted that this success was long-awaited for her, since from the beginning of the season she had shown good speed, but her work on the shooting range let her down over and over again.

“Now I’m starting to gradually level out my shooting and movement.

The coaching staff did a great job.

I also lost 6 kg, and that’s all together.

How did you manage to lose weight?

I just removed the sweets and that’s it.

This is the whole secret.

Everything went away immediately: the swelling and the extra pounds.

But now I'm eating.

While the race is going on, a lot of energy is spent, a lot of calories are needed, so sometimes I allow myself something sweet,” the biathlete shared.

Kuklina said that she expects to reach peak form for the February Spartakiad.

According to her, training with the men's group of Yuri Kaminsky left its mark on her performance this season, but now the negative aspects are smoothed out and fade into the background.

“All this year I trained with men next to Eduard Latypov.

My workload was no different from theirs; this great desire overwhelmed me greatly.

By the Spartakiad, the speed began to appear, the muscles returned to normal,” Larisa explained.

As for the winner, who after the race led the Kyrgyz Republic standings in mass starts, she simply glowed with happiness after the finish.

Victoria admitted that even the routine mistake at the last counter did not upset her: she could afford it.

“Probably, when the first one left after lying down, it was a little difficult and there was a moment that I wanted to give in to the girls - let them go.

But no one was going to overtake me, so we walked at a good pace.

Although I thought that I was walking quietly and disturbing the girls.

I had fun finishing the race - I kicked back, had a blast, enjoyed the race.

First of all, I enjoyed the fact that everything worked out, I coped with the shooting, because the weather conditions were very difficult.

I am very pleased and happy.

She promised to make many people happy, and she kept her promise,” Slivko said on Match TV.