Bronze Loginova and the breakthrough of the Russians: how domestic biathletes performed in the World Cup pursuit

12th place Yurlova-Percht and the incredible take-off of the Old

The day before, Russian biathlon lovers finally got a long-awaited reason for joy. At the World Championships in Anterselva, Alexander Loginov somewhat unexpectedly showed not only a good move, but also accurate shooting, having won a sprint. On Sunday, February 16, a native of Saratov had to protect the occupied lines.

However, women were the first to start, and in this race it was hard for domestic athletes to count on medals. The first of the Russians in the 21st position started Ekaterina Yurlova-Perkht. And Svetlana Mironova, Larisa Kuklina and Irina Starykh had to break through from the fourth to sixth.

And this trio was surprisingly impressive jerk. Irina was most impressed. In the pursuit, it functionally looked much better than in the sprint, and showed the tenth move, losing 36.8 seconds to the leader in this component.

By the way, the fastest was the 37-year-old Kaisa Mäkäräinen, but this did not help her rise above 22nd place. Old with two misses located on the 24th. Thus, she managed to play 29 positions at once. Irina looked better only at the KM stage in Ruhpolding, where she soared up in the pursuit race to 33 places.

Kuklina moved from 48th to 23rd position. She was a little slower than the Oldies.

Svetlana Mironova climbed to 21st place. The biathlete pleased the fans with a good speed. The seventh move (+31.7) was pleasantly surprised. It seems that during the tournament in conditions of low altitude the Russian woman felt better.

Finally, Yurlova-Percht closed the top 12. She started very briskly and passed the first firing line to zero. Unfortunately, then Catherine experienced a drop in speed. In addition, she missed the second lay. And at the last frontier, the 2015 World Champion did not immediately hit two targets, which prevented her from getting into the top ten. However, the national team’s coaches didn’t want to let Yurlova-Perkht go to the start to give her rest after the mixed relay race and sprint, so throwing a stone into her garden is difficult.

Fatal mistake Loginov and fiasco Eliseev

But, of course, the male graze caused much greater interest among the Russians, because in it Loginov fought for the second victory in a row. It was particularly encouraging that on the eve of Alexander looked great functionally. He showed the second move and lost only incredibly fast Kenten Fillon Maye in this indicator.

Alas, on Sunday the Russian was no longer so fast. Apparently, his form, as well as the form of Yurlova-Perkht, was affected by participation in two previous races.

From the first meters it became clear that the pursuers are much faster than the Russian biathlete. The same Fillon Maye got Alexander very quickly, but he made four misses at once on the first line.

Loginova for the time being helped out accuracy. He closed 15 targets in a row and continued to lead. At the same time, Emilien Jacqueline and two misses by Johannes Boe, who in the end turned out to be the fastest that evening, were inexorably approaching him.

And at the last frontier, the Russian still flinched. If in the sprint in the rack he made no mistakes, then in the pursuit he missed the third shot. The Frenchman and the Norwegian took advantage of this and went into the gap.

As a result, Jacqueline quite unexpectedly won in the finish line against Johannes. Loginov on the last lap stopped fighting and calmly finished third, since Martin Fourcade could not catch up with his opponent.

And statistics that appeared a little later confirmed that Alexander didn’t really have enough freshness on Sunday. He showed only the 25th move and lost to Beau Jr. for almost a minute. Especially a lot of Russians lost on the last lap, but at that time he no longer needed to give all the best to 100%.

The rest of the Russians could not please. Only Evgeny Garanichev, who has won 22 positions and moved to 34th place, can add himself to the race. Apparently, the words of the head coach of the national team Anatoly Khovantsev, who said that the further participation of the Ugra in the World Cup will depend on his result in the pursuit, had a positive effect.

Just below Garanichev, Nikita Porshnev finished (39th position), who this time made five misses. And the main loser was Matvey Eliseev. He was the worst in the team in shooting (seven misses), and ran slowly. The biathlete from Zelenograd, who at the start of the season won the first medal in a personal race at the World Cup, showed only the 59th move and ahead of him only Ukrainian Anton Dudchenko. Apparently, Eliseev at the last kilometers of the distance simply did not find the motivation to fight, especially since he, like Yurlova-Perkht and Loginov, ran the third race in the tournament.