Failure at the beginning of the year and positive dynamics in Pokljuka

The February Biathlon World Championships in Antholz threatens to become one of the most unfortunate in history for the Russian team. The national team is clearly not in the best condition for the tournament. The main problem of domestic biathletes remains an extremely weak move, but work on firing lines also sometimes leaves much to be desired.

Against this background, according to the results of the World Cup in Pokljuka, the Russians set an anti-record - the team has been left without medals for 26 races in a row. Although more recently, the situation was diametrically opposite. In mid-December, the team won four awards at the KM stage in Hochfilzen.

Unfortunately, then domestic biathletes started having problems. In Annecy they were let down by the unavailability of skis, and in Oberhof - cartridges. Then the Russians fell into a functional pit, which the trainers explained was an unsuccessful New Year's gathering in Austria.

Now it seems that the wards of Anatoly Khovantsev will not have time to recover. However, some positive dynamics in the state of Russians is still observed. For example, in the individual race in Pokljuk, Alexander Loginov and Matvey Eliseev were in the top twenty in terms of net speed. Last year, the winner of the overall classification of the CM in the case of net work at the borders could even become the fifth.

Girls felt much better. Even in Ruhpolding, they lost disastrously to their rivals, and in Slovenia they stabilized somewhat. And most importantly, the fastest team biathlete Svetlana Mironova returned to duty. If in the sprint race in Ruhpolding she showed a terrifying 61st move, then in the individual in Pokljuka she is already 15th despite the fact that this distance is not profile for her.

In the same race at the firing lines pleased the Old and Kuklin, who made only one mistake for two. As a result, Irina became the eighth, and Larisa - the 13th, and in their performance there was no longer any frank hopelessness.

Both looked great in the mixed relay. They again left only one target open and raised the team from ninth to fourth. Particularly pleased with the strong last lap from the Old Ones, who beat the Swede in the fight for the “wooden medal”. Irina looked good in the women's relay in Ruhpolding. Thus, at least in team races, an experienced athlete can seriously help the team.

Loginov with Eliseev in the mixed relay did not perform very well, but at least they did not fail in speed. Alexander showed the sixth move, and Matvey - the eighth. The girls in this component looked weaker.

Of the other positive points, it should be noted the clean shooting of Eliseev in the mass start, and in this discipline he managed to “knock out zero” a second time in the season. In Annecy, he also closed all 20 targets. But if then, with a six-minute lag, the move became the 29th, then this time it was the 11th. Loginov was not enough to get into the top 10 in speed.

Confidence in the young and Streltsov's great debut

One cannot fail to note the trust that the coaching staff has for young biathletes. This season, Eduard Latypov, Nikita Porshnev, Tamara Voronina, Kristina Reztsova, Anastasia Porshneva, Said Karimulla Khalili have already passed through the national team.

In Pokljuka, 22-year-old Kirill Streltsov announced himself. A native of Moscow was selected for the KM start stages, but the coaching staff decided to send him to gain experience at the IBU Cup. But in January, he got his chance because of the departure of Khalili to the Junior World Cup and took advantage of him one hundred percent. In the individual race, he went to zero all four lines and showed the 17th result.

Streltsov managed to qualify for the mass start, where he also did not get lost - 19th place with just one miss. Although Cyril did not strike the imagination with speed, he demonstrated that he was able to work accurately at firing lines and had strong nerves. The coaching staff appreciated it and took the young athlete to the training camp ahead of the World Championships in Ridnau. It is likely that he will perform at the very championship of the planet.

Trust specialists and other young biathletes. So, even Khalili, who made his debut at the World Cup in Ruhpolding, got a chance to run the baton. And the 21-year-old world champion among juniors did not disappoint, making only one mistake at his stage.

At the moment, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the current national team is being built with an eye to the future and the Olympic Games in Beijing, and therefore Latypov is preferred to the old Dmitry Malyshko because the first “can no longer fight for medals, and the second still.”

“The gathering in Ridnau will help Russian biathletes”

As for the upcoming World Cup, we can only hope for the recovery camp in Ridnau, which will last two weeks. It is possible that their Russians will be enough to regain shape. For example, the leader of the Loginov team is sure of this.

“I think I know what needs to be changed before the World Cup. There are 16 days ahead, and of course I want to spend them fruitfully in terms of preparation. Naturally, you need to relax a bit and in the end make sure that your good form returns, ”the Championship biathlete quotes.

We are confident in the existing plan and in the coaching staff. So, according to the mentor of the men's team Sergey Belozerov, the form of the same Loginov does not cause him concern, and the problem with his functional state can still be solved before the World Cup.

“Yes, Sasha got tired, but I have confidence that the training in Italy will help him. He is recovering quickly, he has a good aerobic base. Two weeks is enough for Loginov to bring the condition back to normal. I think its functionality left its mark on not very high-quality shooting. All six of the guys who performed in Pokljuka are going to the training camp before the World Cup. We continue to follow Khalili at the junior world championship. We also look at the results of the Russian selection in Izhevsk. The IBU Cup will still have a start in Arber, we will also take these results into account when forming the final team, ”the coach emphasized.

In turn, the President of the RBU Vladimir Drachev noted that the training camp in Ridnau will help Russian biathletes to put themselves in order. According to him, they should approach the primacy of the planet in an optimal form.