“This is a holiday for all fans”: what they said about Loginov’s victory in the sprint at the biathlon world championship

“I was able to prove that we are the strongest in the world”

Biathlete Alexander Loginov won the sprint and brought Russia the first gold in 12 years in the world championship in this discipline. Moreover, thanks to the success of the native of Saratov, the medalless series of the national team at the World Cup and World Cup, which totaled 28 races, was interrupted.

However, immediately after his triumph Loginov faced with mistrust from journalists. Media representatives asked why people should believe in the honesty of the victory of a Russian who served a two-year suspension for doping. In response, Alexander invited everyone to live at his house to make sure of his “cleanliness”.

“I won’t say for sure how many doping tests I had, but about 12-16 passed. As for trust, we finally managed to expand our living space, therefore we are ready to welcome any athlete at home with pleasure. At least 365 days a year, almost on the next bed. But it’s not on one thing - the wife will not understand, ”quoted Loginov as saying“ Championship. ”

At the same time, the winner admitted that although the World Cup had just started, he was already dreaming of going home, and on the last lap of the sprint he was only thinking about his family.

But for the Olympic champion Anna Bogaliy, Loginov’s victory was, by her own admission, a real gift.

“Rather, there is no surprise, but I'm glad that, as they say,“ broke through ”, and Sasha won. From the stages of the World Cup, he reached the victory at the World Cup. Sprint is his hobby. But even in the relay yesterday, Alexander had a very high result. This suggests that he is well prepared. Today there was very fierce competition even for getting into the top five, and I caught myself thinking that for the first time in several races I watched the entire men's sprint without stopping. It was nice that there was such a stubborn struggle. I think this is also a holiday for the fans, ”said Bogaliy in an interview with RT.

According to two-time Olympic champion Dmitry Vasiliev, Loginov’s victory will alleviate the situation that has arisen after the recent news of the conviction of doping Evgeny Ustyugov and Svetlana Sleptsova.

“This is a huge victory. After all, even our enemies say that Russia should be in the biathlon community. So the success of Loginov is important for the whole biathlon world. He went to the starts in great shape, this is a completely different Loginov. It was clear that he was ready to win, ”said Vasiliev.

Sergey Chepikov, vice-president of the RBU, congratulated Alexander on the victory. He noted that the Russian man was able to tune in to the race, despite all the scandals surrounding Russian sport.

“Alexander walked for a long time to the gold medal, glad for him, for the coach, for the team. And our fans were inspired by this race. The victory was not easy, especially when all the leaders of the world biathlon were at the peak of form. In this race, almost everything was decided. Against the background of the disqualification of the Olympic four - the situation is not at all simple. Alexander managed to get together, despite all the negativity around our biathlon, and, most importantly, prove that we are the strongest in the world, ”Chepikov emphasized.

“Russia should not be here at all”

But foreign athletes reacted to the victory of the Russian, to put it mildly, cool. For example, the Frenchman Martin Fourcade defiantly refused to comment on her. Answering a question about how he reacted to Alexander’s success, Martin recalled that “there is no relationship between them.”

At the same time, Olympic champion Sebastian Samuelsson complained about the poor performance of the entire anti-doping system and emphasized that he was not going to congratulate Alexander on his victory. According to the Swede, neither Loginov nor other Russian biathletes should have allowed this world championship to happen.

“I have nothing to say to him. The fact that he speaks here is just a formality. All this is very sad for the world biathlon. I have no problems with the fact that Russia won gold today, I have problems with who won it. You cannot take EPO and then calmly come and take a medal. WADA recently disqualified Russia, it should not be here at all. And then they appealed and calmly came here, ”the Championship quotes Samuelsson.

Even more emotional was the Norwegian Tarja Be, who took fourth place. The biathlete complained that he had to be content with a “wooden” medal, while the athlete who was serving a suspension for doping was celebrated with a victory.

“According to my feelings, this is a little unworthy of us - those who are honestly fighting. Today, Russia already appeared in all the headlines, and we got the Olympic bronze because they deceived everyone at the Olympic Games in Sochi, and now because of the same I lose bronze. It is a pity that it is impossible to remove the name Loginov from the final protocol. He does not deserve to be here. Today was the Franco-Norwegian match, but the Russian came and intervened. I do not respect people who cheated, ”Beh quotes the“ Championship ”, referring to NRK.

In even sharper form, Johannes Boe spoke about Loginov’s victory. He doubted the honesty of the current victory of the Russian.

“Against the background of all that we know about and the low speed this season, Loginov’s victory looks a little strange,” Beau Jr. admitted.

Loginov, in turn, said that he had not yet read critical statements from Norwegian athletes. The Russian ironically noted that he was ready to talk with everyone, but he was "not the president of the country to convene a separate press conference."