“Crystal Globe” by Repilov, Bolshunov’s silver and Loginov’s victory: what did the Russians achieve in winter sports

Tobogganing

The last stage of the Luge World Cup was held in German Königssee. It was to determine the owners of Crystal Globes for victory in the overall standings. The Russians claimed three trophies out of four and for the first time in history became the owners of two at once.

For the second time in his career, Roman Repilov managed to become the best in the season. Despite skipping the previous leg in Winterberg, he still took first place before the competition in Königssee, where his main task was to get around the Italian Dominic Fishnaller. After the first attempt, Repilov walked fourth, overtaking his main rival by 0.072 seconds. In the second attempt, Fishnaller was seriously mistaken, and then the Russian was not difficult to stay ahead of him. In addition to the Crystal Globe, Repilov won the bronze medal of the stage, and Semyon Pavlichenko, who became the third in the overall classification, won the gold.

Viessmann Luge World Cup 2020 🏆🇷🇺 Roman Repilov Overall winner, 2nd Dominik Fischnaller 🇮🇹 and 3rd Semen Pavlichenko 🇷🇺 # LugeLove # Worldcuppic.twitter.com / K0N1z0TV2J

The fight between Russia and Italy for the main trophy of the season continued in the relay. The Russians had to be much higher in the team race to close the gap. After in their attempt they showed only the third time after Germany and the USA, it seemed that there would be no chance of victory. However, the Italians failed at the last stage and took tenth place. The final scoring showed that the two countries divided the Crystal Globe among themselves, which happened for the first time in the history of the World Cup. Germany, having taken all the trophies since 2008, interrupted its winning streak.

Team relay overall winner of Viessmann World Cup presented by BMW together On points Italy 🇮🇹 and Russia 🇷🇺🏆🏆 # LugeLovepic.twitter.com / esHCSYGGz3

Another chance to win in the overall standings was Tatyana Ivanova. She took first place, quite a bit ahead of the hostess of the final stage, Julia Taubits. After the first attempt, the whole struggle between the two girls was ahead - the German was only two hundredths of a second ahead. But in a decisive attempt, Ivanova crashed at the start and could not catch up on the track. Taubitz stayed ahead and won the Crystal Globe, the 22nd consecutive year for German girls. But for the first time since 1998, in the first three of the overall classification, there was only one sled from Germany. The third place was taken by Victoria Demchenko, who won the bronze of the stage in Königssee.

In the men's double sleigh, Alexander Denisiev and Vladislav Antonov had a chance to end the season in the first three. But the track of the final stage obviously did not fit them, and with the 13th result they became fourth in the overall standings, which for the Russian twos can also be considered an incredible success.

Ski race

Skier Alexander Bolshunov is also striving for the Crystal Globe at full speed. In the week he had only one opportunity to increase the lead over his pursuers in the overall standings - it was successful to perform in his favorite race with a 15 km separate start in the classic style at the stage in Lahti.

The main rival in this discipline was the owner of the competition Iivo Niskanen, who also shows his best results in this race. For most of the distance, both skiers walked at the same time, but on the last lap the Finn still came off for ten seconds. Bolshunov showed the second time and further increased his lead over Johannes Hösflot Klebo in the overall standings. Two weeks later, at the stages in Canada, the Russian will be able to ahead of schedule win the main trophy of the season.

Iivo Niskanen swipes the top of the podium +10 seconds ahead of Alexander Bolshunov and +28 seconds ahead of Hans Christer Holund during todays 15km C in Lahti! Congratulations👏 # fiscrosscountry 📷by @ nordicfocuspic.twitter.com / 30X25oAMxv

After cutting Bolshunov went to the next starts in Norway and did not take part in the relay. But even without his help, one of the Russian teams was able to win a medal. Ilya Semikov, who showed the fourth result in a personal race, Alexander Bessmertnykh, Denis Spitsov and Andrey Melnichenko became bronze medalists. Melnichenko finished all the main competitors, and there he lost to Klebo and the Swiss Roman Furger.

Russian girls did not have much to repeat this result. Natalya Nepryaeva, Alisa Zhambalova, Ekaterina Smirnova and Yana Kirpichenko early missed the opportunity to compete with the teams of Norway and Finland, but they fought against the Swedes to the last. Kirpichenko until the finish restrained Maya Dalkvist, who has an excellent finish, but lost to her in the band.

Snowboard

In the Canadian resort of Blue Mountain, the stage of the World Cup in snowboarding took place, during which the last two sets of awards in the season in parallel giant slalom were played. Russian athletes managed to win one medal of each value, moving from the least valuable to the most.

On the first day, Andrei Sobolev won the bronze, it was important for him to become a winner in order to be in the first three of the World Cup standings. In the bronze race, he beat the strong Italian Roland Fishnaller, who won three victories in a season. In the final, a unique situation occurred - for the first time in history, the photo finish could not determine the winner. Mirko Felichetti from Italy and Benjamin Karl from Austria came down so close to each other that the judges decided to divide the gold between them.

Attention please! May we present you a very rare case of two first places in the men's PGS finals in Blue Mountain today! Austria's Benny Karl took the win today at the penultimate competition of the season together with Mirko Felicetti! 🥳🔥🤗🥇💪🥇 # fissnowboard # twofirstplacespic.twitter.com / 51Z8nlZ0kr

Silver the next day won the rising star of the snowboard Sofia Nadyrshina. The 16-year-old athlete reached the final of the women's competition, where she lost to the German Ramone Theresa Hofmeister, who made a gold double in Blue Mountain. For Nadyrshina, this medal was the second for the season. Another step forward was made by Dmitry Loginov. For the first time after his double triumph at last year’s World Cup, he celebrated his victory at the World Cup. He became one of the four Russians who reached the quarterfinals, and in the main race he was faster than the German Stefan Baumaister.

This success allowed Loginov to take the final third place in the standings of the parallel giant slalom and rise to the same position in parallel disciplines where the season continues - there are two more stages of the World Cup ahead, where medals will be played in ordinary slalom. Among women, Nadyrshina has the best position among Russians - in the PBC, she finished the season in fifth place.

Skating

For the first time in history, the United World Speed ​​Skating Championships took place in Hamar. In Norway, both sprinters and long-distance enthusiasts gathered. The Russians claimed all kinds of awards, but there was only one medal in the piggy bank.

The greatest chances were for the men's sprint team led by Pavel Kulizhnikov. However, after the first day, he, together with Ruslan Murashov and Viktor Mushtakov, starred due to poor health, although all three claimed high results in the sum of the first two races. Instead, Olga Fatkulina became the winner. In all the runs of 500 and 1000 meters she took places from the fourth to the sixth, and this was more than enough to win the bronze in the sprint all-around for the second time.

What a Day 2 it's been! 🌟🙌 Miho Takagi (JPN) 🇯🇵 wins the World Sprint title 🥇 and Ireen Wüst (NED) Ivan, Ivanie Blondin (CAN) 🇨🇦, and Melissa Wijfje (NED) 🇳🇱 have set up an Allround thriller for Day 3.
Full report 👉 https://t.co/X5DTO8dNjd#WorldSpeed#SpeedSkatingpic.twitter.com/3ScPcyKfdY

In classical all-around, Natalya Voronina, world record holder in the 5000-meter race, had excellent chances for a medal. However, after she performed below a range of 3,000 meters below her capabilities, she was unable to even qualify for the final race. The best result among Russians was shown by Evgenia Lalenkova, who became the sixth. Sergey Trofimov was able to rise one line higher. Despite the fact that he was third and fourth at individual flight distances, in shorter races he lost too much to his main competitors.

Bobsleigh and skeleton

For the first time since 2012, the Russian team was unable to win medals at the Bobsleigh and Skeleton World Championships. In the second week of the competition in Altenberg, high hopes were associated with skeletonists, for whom, in addition to personal races, team events were organized for the first time.

Closest to getting on the podium was Elena Nikitina. After the first descent, she went second, and then dropped to third line. Although on the second day she showed wonderful seconds on acceleration, when passing the track the rivals were much faster. Nikitina finally took fifth place, 0.29 seconds behind the third.

In men's competitions, hopes were associated with Alexander Tretyakov and Nikita Tregubov, but they did not appear in the first three in either of the slopes. As a result, they took eighth and ninth places - in the men's skeleton there were no such results for 12 years. The mixed debut also did not bring any reason for joy - Tregubov and Julia Kanaykina became ninth, and Nikita and Tretyakov only closed the first dozen.

Freestyle

The stage of the freestyle World Cup in acrobatics took place in Almaty - the penultimate on the calendar. But the Russian team did not take part in it, focusing on preparing for the final starts in Krasnoyarsk. Because of this, Maxim Burov could easily lose his leadership in the overall standings.

And it really happened. Its main competitor Noe Roth from Switzerland came out on top, beating the Russian. However, Roth, which took eighth place in Almaty, created a very small advantage of 13 points, which Burov could play on the home ramp. Pavel Krotov, who is still fourth, has not lost the chance to successfully end the season.