Perfect shooting, excellent skiing and second move: Loginov won the first biathlon World Cup gold in his career

Impressive speed and nerves of iron

The World Championship in Anterselva did not start very well for domestic biathletes. In the mixed relay and women's sprint, they were left without awards. In the last race, Russians did not even get into the top 20. After that, the fans did not expect special achievements in the men's sprint.

However, they still had a reason for optimism. And he consisted in the excellent speed of Matvey Eliseev and Alexander Loginov in the mixed relay. Eliseev at his stage showed the eighth move, and Loginov - the second, losing only to the incredibly fast Kenten Fillon Maya. Even Johannes Boe lost the Russian that evening. In addition, Alexander also accurately shot and did everything to bring the Russian team to the top 6.

Fortunately, in the sprint, the team leader showed excellent speed. Already at the level of 1.9 km, he showed the sixth acceleration, although only 43rd started. It should be noted that the Russians had excellent skiing. In this regard, the coaches completely guessed with a relatively late starting number, as late in the evening the temperature dropped, and the track “glazed”, and did not turn into a mess of melted snow.

It is important that Loginov did not lose a good pace along the course, as is often the case with Matvey Eliseev. He, on the contrary, added. So, on the first round, Alexander showed the eighth move, on the second - the third, and on the last - the second. On the final three kilometers Loginov did not slow down, but, on the contrary, found additional resources in himself to compete with Fillon Maye. However, the Frenchman did not have competitors in terms of speed. But on the last lap, Alexander calmly retained the advantage and did not make the fans nervous.

But most importantly, the native of Saratov, everything turned out at the firing lines. How many times it happened that he was left without medals due to the fact that he missed the rack. Therefore, after zero on the bench, all fans of the domestic biathlon were waiting for the second frontier with undisguised anxiety. But Alexander worked on it quickly and accurately and did not leave any chances to competitors.

Rivals in this component gave Loginov a chance, and he took advantage of it. Fillon Maye and Johannes Boe missed. Martin Fourcade and Tarja Boe also closed all ten targets, but failed to catch up with the Russians.

Loginov’s victory, which was the first for the Russians in the sprint at the World Cup in 12 years, is certainly pleasing, but still very surprising. Indeed, only three weeks ago, at the World Cup stage in Pokljuka, he gave way to Johannes Boe in the mass start for almost a minute, and Fillon Maya - for half a minute. But the coaches then promised that for the time remaining before the championship of the planet, Alexander would have time to recover and regain perfect shape, and kept his word.

Offensive miss of Eliseev, Porshnev's perfect work and failure of Garanichev

But other Russians, it seems, did not have time to recover. Eliseev had enough strength for a short stage in the mixed relay, but in the sprint he again had traditional problems on the last lap. He passed it with a lag of almost 40 seconds from Fillon Maye. But before that, Matvey almost went to the medal. Only an insulting slip on the bench prevented him from joining the fight for rewards.

“The miss was very upset. Moreover, it was clear why I was wrong, even worse. Itself did not work, some constriction played a role. The mistake, of course, is bad. Well-being in the pursuit should be better. Due to the fact that he was in the third group today, he did not see anyone. Maybe it got in the way. The slip improved towards the end of the race, so it didn’t fail, ”Eliseev said on Match TV.

Pleased and Nikita Porshnev. The choice of his candidacy for the "sprint - graze" bunch caused many questions, but the 23-year-old athlete fully justified the trust of the coaches. Yes, the speed of the young Russian left much to be desired, but on the firing lines he did without mistakes, which allowed him to share 21st place with the Italian Lucas Hofer.

“Sanya - well done, he won, I am happy for him. Negativity around the team? We are already used to it. Rather, they were ready. They knew that it was during the World Cup that such attacks would begin. Nothing new really happened. What kind of attacks? Everything that happens on the Internet, ”said Porshnev.

Indeed, one can only marvel at the fact that Loginov’s victory was obtained on such a difficult day for the Russian biathlon when the IBU found Evgeny Ustyugov and Svetlana Sleptsova guilty of doping.

But Yevgeny Garanichev again failed to please. An experienced athlete was not in good shape all season, but the hope was growing that he would get the necessary conditions for the World Cup. Alas, this did not happen. In the sprint, Garanichev not only made three misses, but also showed only the 47th move. As a result - 56th place.