Ski race
The start of the World Cup in cross-country skiing turned out to be unsuccessful for the Russian men's team - in none of the three races in Ruka they managed to win medals. But a week later in the Norwegian Lillehammer everything fell into place. Two gold and one silver were taken by Russian skiers.
On Saturday, a skiathlon took place - a classic and skating style race with a total distance of 30 km. By the middle of the distance, a leadership group of eight skiers formed, which included Sergey Ustyugov, Alexander Bolshunov and four Norwegians. As usual in such cases, there was a risk that team tactics would be used against the Russians.
However, the owners could not cooperate properly, and to deliver Johannes Klebo to the finish did not work. On the last kilometers, a leadership trio of Bolshunov, Emil Iversen and the world champion in the 50 km race Hans Christa Holunna was formed. The Russian did not repeat his past mistakes when, in a similar situation, he dragged his opponents along and then lost to them at the finish. Bolshunov himself sat behind them and deftly ended Holunn in the sprint. The 22-year-old skier won his first victory in a skiathlon, having done it in front of the Norwegian fans.
Congratulations to all competitors for conquering the tough Skiathlon course of Lillehammer 🎉stage free for some exciting Team Relay tomorrow! # Fiscrosscountrypic.twitter.com / VIcO3pXuD8
- FIS Cross-Country (@FISCrossCountry) December 7, 2019The next day, relay races were planned in the program of the World Cup stage. Bolshunov did not take part - he is faced with the task of fighting for victory in the World Cup, in the overall classification of which he is third. Ustyugov, too, was not supposed to go to the start, but replaced Artyom Maltsev, who was poisoned with local fish, and became the finisher of the nominally second Russian four, which also included Ivan Yakimushkin, Evgeny Belov and Ilya Poroshkin.
The first team was formed by Andrey Larkov, Ilya Semikov, Denis Spitsov and Andrey Melnichenko. Together with the latter, Ustyugov formed a separation from the Norwegian quartets, which ensured the Russian team two first places. Two skiers had only to decide who would come to the finish line first, and sprinter skills here turned out to be much better for Ustyugov. For the first time since 2007, the Russian men's ski team won two consecutive relay races in the World Cup.
Replay of todays men Relay at World Cup Lillehammer 😲
🥇 Russia II
🥈 Russia I
🥉 Norway I
Congratulations! # fiscrosscountrypic.twitter.com / NgHXKdrgyd
The women's team without Anastasia Sedova and Yulia Belorukova is going through difficult times again. Natalya Nepryaeva demonstrates that excellent form, which brought her bronze at the last stage, then not very good, because of which she became 11th in a skiathlon. In the relay, the World Cup vice champion helped the first Russian four to stay among the leaders after the second stage, but teammates lost to the winners from Norway for more than two minutes and finished sixth.
Skating
The third stage of the World Speed Skating Cup took place in Nur Sultan, which, as usual, brought the Russian team a new portion of good mood. Especially pleased were the girls from the sprint group, who continued to win entire sets of medals.
It all started with a 1000-meter race in which Daria Kachanova lost only to the American Brittany Bow, and Olga Fatkulina became the bronze medalist in the same discipline. Together with Angelina Golikova, they also took second place in the team sprint. The next day, three Russian girls performed incredibly in the 500 meter race - all of them found a place in the first four. Golikova in a dispute for gold beat Kachanova one hundredth of a second, and Fatkulina, in addition to her teammates, let Japanese Nao Kodaira go ahead.
🇷🇺🇷🇺It's Russia at the double! 🥇Angelina Golikova (RUS) edges compatriot Daria Kachanova🥈 by 0.01 sec in ladies' 500m in Nur-Sultan. 🥉Nao Kodaira🇯🇵
🔢 Live Results - https://t.co/QH6jdpwkzL
▶ Live Stream - https://t.co/reFSqDR8CQ
# ⃣ # SpeedSkatingpic.twitter.com / iMKH0vkbQ5
The performance of male sprinters left a double impression. The 500-meter race was just as successful as the girls - Viktor Mushtakov and Ruslan Murashov almost at the same time played the first two places among themselves, and Artyom Arefyev showed the fourth result. But in the team sprint, failure again occurred - in the third race in a row, Russian skaters did not reach the finish line. In order to score at least some points in the World Cup, there was only one attempt left.
💪Career first ISU World Cup win for 🥇Viktor Mushtakov 🇷🇺 in men's 500m
🥈Ruslan Murashov 🇷🇺
🥉Alex Boisvert-Lacroix 🇨🇦
LIVE 🔴 | Day 1 | World Cup Nur-Sultan 2019
🔢 Live Results - https://t.co/dLut9Aq7Zv
▶ Live Stream - https://t.co/4sDujRHOP3
# ⃣ # SpeedSkatingpic.twitter.com / 2fcsvtPZbC
Danila Semerikov continues to turn into an extra class styer. At a distance of 10,000 meters, he took second place after the new king of long races, Patrick Rust. Alexander Rumyantsev showed the fourth time, and this is also an excellent achievement for domestic skaters. In the team race, Russians in the experimental squad from Semerikov, Ruslan Zakharov and Daniil Aldoshkin won bronze in the second stage in a row. Girls in a similar discipline also showed a third result.
🎉🥇Patrick Roest 🇳🇱 wins 10,000m on his 24th 🎂birthday to conclude Day 2 action in Nur-Sultan.
🥈Danila Semerikov🇷🇺
🥉 Graeme Fish 🇨🇦
🔢 Results - https://t.co/QH6jdpwkzL
# ⃣ # SpeedSkatingpic.twitter.com / PEnrIqFZ14
The upcoming European Championships influenced the results of Russians in the habitually strong distance of 1,500 meters. Denis Yuskov and Ekaterina Shikhova missed the race for the sake of preparations for the tournament, and in their absence no one reached the medals. The closest was Evgenia Lalenkova, who took fifth place immediately before Elizabeth Kazelina.
Short track
The short track team at the World Cup stage in Shanghai also performed successfully. In the men's relay race, Daniil Eibog, Pavel Sitnikov, Semyon Elistratov and Victor An won gold, winning medals for the fourth time in a row. For a long time, during the final, the Russians went second immediately after the Koreans, but An was able at the last stage to jump out from behind the former compatriot and bring a second victory for the season. In the World Cup standings, the Russian relay four remains in first place.
Russia 🇷🇺 pip Olympic champions Hungary 🇭🇺 in the Men's 5000m Relay in Shanghai - their second World Cup 🥇 this season in the event. Rep. Korea take 🥉 # ShortTrackSkatingpic.twitter.com / TUC0FDYFIm
- ISU Speed Skating (@ISU_Speed) December 8, 2019In the mixed relay, the Russians also climbed the podium. Emin Malagich and Sofya Prosvirnova, along with Elistratov and An, secured silver in advance, since in the final the teams of the USA and Canada did not reach the finish line due to falls. In the dispute between An and the Dutchman Yitzhak de Lath, everything was decided by the photo finish, which gave the victory to the Netherlands national team. At the same time, the Russians remained in first place in the overall standings of this new discipline.
The only personal medal in Shanghai could be won by Simon Elistratov. In the final of the 1000 meter race, he came to the finish line third. However, before that, in the last corner he pushed Park Ji Won, and the judges decided to disqualify the Russian, and give the medal to the South Korean.
Wow, another close one in the Men's 1000m 😵 on Day 3 of the World Cup in Shanghai 🇨🇳. This time, it's Han Tianyu 🇨🇳 who edges it for 🥇 ahead of Shaoang Liu 🇭🇺 who takes 🥈. Park Ji Won 🇰🇷 grabs 🥉 # ShortTrackSkatingpic.twitter.com / WJAP9hwOx5
- ISU Speed Skating (@ISU_Speed) December 8, 2019The next big competition with the participation of the Russian team will be the European Championship, which will be held in late January. The World Cup will end immediately after that with two February stages in Dresden and Dodrecht.
Bobsleigh and skeleton
In the American Lake Placid, the Bobsleigh and Skeleton World Cup kicked off. The hopes of Russian fans are primarily associated with the last of two disciplines, in which the current owners of the Big Crystal Globe are Alexander Tretyakov and Elena Nikitina.
But the leaders of the national team did not start the new season very well. In women's competitions, Nikitina showed only the ninth time in her first attempt. The second descent was more successful, but she did not rise above fifth place in total.
Alexander Tretyakov also did not show quick seconds in the first part of the competition, but managed to cling to the medal. Both times he showed the fourth time among all participants. He managed to rise higher and become a bronze medalist thanks to the mistake of the leader after the first attempt by Felix Kaisinger from Germany. Evgeny Rukosuev and Nikita Tregubov were in the first six after one descent, but after the second attempt they lost their positions.
Snowboard
In the South Ural resort "Bannoe" near Magnitogorsk, the start of the World Cup in snowboarding in slalom disciplines. For the first time since 2013, Russia hosted such competitions on natural slopes, and not on an artificial ramp - earlier only metropolitan spectators could visit the stages of the World Cup. Athletes played medals in parallel slalom and parallel giant slalom.
Russian athletes failed to win awards. Only once did Natalia Soboleva get to the semifinals in the “giant”, but she lost to the German Ramone Hofmeister, and then lost only 11 hundredths of a second to the 46-year-old Austrian Claudia Riegler in a dispute over bronze. The current World Cup winner Andrei Sobolev, two-time world champion Dmitry Loginov and two-time Olympic champion Vick Wild did not manage to reach even the quarter-finals on any of the days of the competition, although they had good results in the qualification.