Career restart: Garanichev and Babikov return to the Russian national biathlon team before the start of the CM

Evgeny Garanichev and Anton Babikov became the main candidates for getting into the Russian men's biathlon team in the new season.

They won two control trainings at the training camp in Khanty-Mansiysk, thereby increasing their chances of participating in the World Cup stages.

The final composition of the team will not be known until November 18, it will be formed by the decision of the coaching staff.

These days the Russian men's national team is holding a training camp in Khanty-Mansiysk.

Initially, the biathletes had to prepare for the new season in Tyumen together with the women's team.

However, at the last moment, the two teams had to be separated.

The reason for this was the unstable epidemiological situation.

During the gathering in the Yakut Aldan, Pyotr Pashchenko, Alexander Povarnitsyn and four people from the staff became infected with the coronavirus.

Because of this, the coaching staff decided to play it safe and further separate the men's and women's teams.

Soon after the start of the training camp in Khanty-Mansiysk, control trainings with races in the sprint and mass start formats were organized for its participants.

As it turned out later, the coaching staff was going, based on their results, to form the national team for the first stages of the World Cup, which will begin at the end of November in Finnish Kontiolahti.

The winner of the 10 km sprint race was Evgeny Garanichev.

He won with one penalty, one second ahead of Peter Pashchenko, who shot perfectly.

Anton Babikov and Eduard Latypov lost 13 seconds to the athlete who had recovered from the coronavirus, and the latter did not hit the targets three times.

The success of Garanichev and Babikov was rather unexpected.

Both athletes unsuccessfully performed in September at the Russian summer biathlon championship.

Taking into account the fact that last season they did not show high results at the World Cup, and Babikov did only perform at one stage, their chances of returning to the main team of the country were assessed very low.

However, after the first race, both athletes were praised by the head coach Valery Polkhovsky, who told reporters about the importance of the past start.

“It was noticeable even at sighting that the guys were in a good mood.

This was the first official qualifying start.

Now on November 12 we will hold a mass start and determine the composition of the team for the first stages of the World Cup.

It's good that Babikov is returning.

Garanichev did a great job.

Pashchenko, having just had a coronavirus, was able not only to start, but also to take second place! "

- quotes the words of Polkhovsky "Tyumen Arena".

The two athletes confirmed their form in the mass start.

The victory this time was won by Babikov, who made one mistake less than Garanichev.

Both of them could well be bypassed by the representative of the reserve team, Semyon Suchilov, however, due to five penalties, he took only third place.

After the race, Babikov admitted that he was optimistic about the new season.

“The slide was tight.

The race was not easy, but we managed to compete at the turn.

It was not without a mistake, but overall I am satisfied.

The weather in Khanty-Mansiysk is changing, everything goes towards winter.

When I arrived, it was +1 ... + 2 ° C.

The forecast is already more winter temperature, Russian winter.

We are experiencing now, one might say, a different winter.

The main thing is that there is a lot of good snow here.

The mood for the season is positive, although, of course, there are many things to work on.

But we made a step forward, I think, soon everything will be better, "- quotes Babikov" Yugramegasport ".

After the second control training, Polkhovsky confirmed that Garanichev and Babikov could now again get into the national team.

“There is already an understanding of who will be part of the team, but we will make the final decision a little later.

It will also be necessary to look at the state of the guys, at how things are with the coronavirus.

There is still time before leaving for Finland ... Garanichev and Babikov became the leaders in two races - they performed well, there are no questions for them.

Sports result will be taken into account first of all, but our main task is to bring healthy guys and girls to the World Cup stages, so we have to once again assess the health of all athletes, "Polkhovsky said in an interview with TASS.

Later, Polkhovsky, in a commentary to the press service of the Russian Biathlon Union, said that the final composition of the entire national team, including the women's team, would be announced no earlier than November 18.

At the same time, the coach expressed concern that the squad may undergo changes due to the coronavirus.

Control training is a completely objective indicator for determining the composition of the national team, since almost all the best biathletes in the country took part in them.

Only two biathletes did not compete, having already guaranteed their places in the national team.

These are Alexander Loginov and Matvey Eliseev, who remain in the team thanks to a decent performance last season - both finished it in the top 15 in the overall standings of the World Cup.

Now both athletes are preparing for the Finnish stages separately from the national team.

Loginov trained in Tyumen in October and stayed there to reunite with his partners, but in the end he could not do this due to dramatically changed plans.

Eliseev, on the other hand, spends the final part of the preparation for the season at the Seminsky Pass in the Altai Republic, together with the junior team.