Eliseev’s six-minute lag and a serious conversation with servicemen
The stage of the World Cup in Annecy turned out to be extremely unsuccessful for Russian biathletes. After winning four medals in Hochfilzen, fans expected success in France, but the domestic team failed to please them. Moreover, the Russians were shocked by the gigantic lag on the track from the leaders.
However, the stage turned out to be very difficult for servicemen, because there was a plus temperature, and the snow was melting before our eyes. The organizers actively sprinkled it with nitrate, but this did not help much. And on Friday and Sunday in addition it was raining. Surprisingly, the race was not canceled at all.
In such conditions, the preparation of Russian skis left much to be desired, in contrast to the rivals. This is especially true for men. Already in the sprint, Alexander Loginov, with clean shooting, lost to the winner for almost a minute and honestly admitted that he did not understand what this lag was connected with.
In contact racing, the situation only worsened. For example, in the pursuit, Matvey Eliseev managed to lose “minutes” to Johannes Boe 2 minutes and 16.8 seconds. Evgeny Garanichev and Eduard Latypov lost about two minutes, Dmitry Malyshko and Nikita Porshnev - 1 minute and 44 seconds. Only Alexander Loginov tried to keep up with the leaders, but as a result lost his feet to the Norwegian 1: 26.6 and showed only 36th speed.
After the race, biathletes did not hide the fact that the cause of such results was the work of skis. According to media reports, a serious conversation took place between the team and servicemen in the evening, and Eliseev and Loginov did not even want to speak at the mass start.
“We will discuss this. Today is the moment when you need to talk frankly about it. If they don’t run tomorrow, I hope the management and the fans will understand us, ”the“ Championship ”quotes the words of the senior coach of the men's team Sergei Belozerov.
As a result, the leaders of the team came to the start, but there was no sharp improvement in the situation, and Eliseev had the hardest time, who, with clean shooting, lost Beau “legs” for 6 minutes and 21.5 seconds and took last, 30th place. Even Loginov's lag was almost two minutes - 1: 47.5. Eliseev, in his incredible failure, directly blamed the skis.
“On the first lap, it became clear that I was wrong with the choice of skis. We made a mistake with the service team, because we did not have a structure for such weather. I don’t know how others have the team, but Sasha Loginov left me on the descent, Porshnev also overtook. I did everything I could, but it did not help, so I just enjoyed the race. In January, everything will be fine, the main thing is that the skis go, ”said the biathlete on the TV show“ Biathlon with Dmitry Guberniev ”on Match TV.
Fatigue of Kuklina and quiet speed of Mironova
Belozerov also confirmed the existence of the problem, who noted that the Russians practically did not go skiing. He also recalled that only four people are training in the national ski team, while in the Norwegian - 11.
“I have video information filmed on a long descent where the skis stop. At the leading athletes, they ride 25-30 meters further. To date, the Norwegians and French have well prepared skis, even the Germans were at about the same level with us. Of the minuses - problems in the technical equipment. Loginov did not understand why, after a sprint without a miss, he lost so much. He is a great professional and roughly understands what he is ready for with such shooting. And here is such a huge loss, he is at a loss. We have already mentioned problems with the preparation of skis, but I do not want to blame them, ”the trainer admitted.
It was not easier for girls. So, Larisa Kuklina directly stated that it was very difficult for her during all three races. There is no trace of the proprietary speed of Svetlana Mironova.
Kick competitors and weather problems
However, not all were accused of skiing. For example, Dmitry Malyshko explained that acclimatization in the mountains could have affected the results of Russians. According to him, she simply did not have time to “cover” the team in Hochfilzen, and already in Annecy the condition of the athletes sharply worsened. On the other hand, the same Loginov emphasized that in Annecy I felt fine and counted on more.
At the same time, biathletes from other countries did not experience such problems with skiing. This is especially true for Norwegians and French. Bad track did not stop to demonstrate branded speed Tiril Eckhoff and Johannes Boe, who won five of the six races. Tyril, after the sprint, thanked the Norwegian servicemen for their excellent work and kissed her skis at the sight of TV cameras.
“It's not me, but my service provider won the race today. I just ran fast because I had great skis, ”said Eckhoff.
The results of this story were summed up by the president of the Russian Biathlon Union. He admitted that at this stage the team has technical problems with preparing skis in such weather, and there is also a lack of personnel.
“We have 12 servicemen, we break them into teams. We will strengthen. Here the question is not even how many people, it all depends on the quality of work. It happens that four work out much better. The main problem when it is damp is water, wet snow, and we cannot find the opportunity to compete with foreign teams in the technical component. Our servicemen work fine, but they lack opportunities. We are waiting for the frost: in these conditions, our skis work well. In rain, at a positive temperature, situations always occurred when they could not pick up lubrication options ... Europe often runs around in warm weather, we are mostly in sub-zero temperatures, ”said Drachev.