Confident superiority: the Russian men's team won the relay at the biathlon stage in Oberhof

Risky choice

After the victory of the women's relay four at the KM stage in Oberhof, many fans believed in the potential success of the Russian men's national team, and there were good reasons for this. Firstly, for Norway by the decision of the coaching staff, the brothers Johannes (the leader of the overall World Cup) and Tarja Bø did not run. Secondly, the sevenfold owner of the Big Crystal Globe Martin Fourcade continues to experience problems with the French.

The national team, in turn, was represented by a very balanced four. On the other hand, the coaching staff made a rather risky choice. So, Matvey Eliseev did not take part in the relay, but ex-captain Maxim Tsvetkov, who returned to the national team, acted as a miner. The return of the world champion turned out to be ambiguous. In the sprint, he failed, taking only 56th place, but in the pursuit he corrected himself and played 32 positions at once.

The second had to escape Evgeny Garanichev, who had regularly experienced problems in relay races before. For example, three years ago, at the World Championships in Oslo-Holmenkollen, an athlete entered the penalty loop at the front, and the Russian team ended up left without medals.

After that, the coaches did not want to put Garanichev in the composition, and he himself admitted that he was experiencing psychological difficulties. In the current season at the stage in Hochfilzen, Eugene did not take part in the relay because of problems with the stomach, and young debutant Eduard Latypov had to go to the start.

On the other hand, Garanichev had successful battles. So, in 2015, the Russian four with a native of Novoilinsky as a part also won a landslide victory in Oberhof, ahead of the Norwegians and the French.

Perfect race

As a result, the choice of coaches fully justified itself. At the first stage, Tsvetkov accurately shot and handed the baton to Garanichevu third in a few seconds from the leader - Frenchman Antonin Gigonna. The second to the finish came the owner of the track Eric Lesser.

However, his mate Simon Scamp on the shooting range was waiting for failure. He made four misses at once and drove into the penalty loop. But Simon Detyou and Garanichev have worked to zero and left the line almost synchronously.

But at the front, the failure has already overtaken the Frenchman. He went to the penalty loop, and Garanichev again quietly closed five targets and returned to the race as a confident leader. Fortunately, Eugene managed to win over himself in the relay race.

Following him, Dmitry Malyshko left the track. Unlike partners, he made mistakes - one at each of the lines - but showed excellent speed. The advantage of Russians over the Frenchman Kenten Fillon Maya grew literally before our eyes and eventually it was over a minute.

At the last frontier, Fourcade faced an almost impossible task - to play a minute behind Alexander Loginov.

And the winner of the sprint in Oberhof gave chances to the opponent. Alexander missed both on the bench and on the rack twice, but Marten was not able to level the enormous backlog, despite the clean shooting. In addition, Loginov was clearly faster and with every kilometer more and more broke away from the French.

As a result, Alexander “brought” to the venerable rival for almost a minute and fell into the arms of his partners. The Russian four won a landslide victory. For the first time in three years, domestic biathletes climbed the top step of the podium in the relay during the World Cup. The last time they did it was in January 2016 in Antholz. Then the Russian four in almost the same composition (plus Anton Shipulin) was only one second ahead of the Germans.

Then there was a victory at the 2017 World Championships in Hochfilzen, when Alexey Volkov, Tsvetkov, Shipulin and Anton Babikov were faster than the French.

The last time the men's national team of Russia was on the podium of the relay race in the framework of the CM last season. At the Antholz stage, domestic biathletes finished third.

Finally, the Russian women's and men's team won a synchronous victory in the KM relay race for the first time in 13 years. In 2006, domestic athletes left their rivals behind in Hochfilzen and won two sets of gold medals at once.

Women won the first victory in the relay in seven years. The last time the highest step of the podium was submitted to them in January 2012, also in Oberhof.