According to the results of the four stages of the Biathlon World Cup, the Russian national team was never able to win a single award.

After the mass starts on Sunday, the team's mediocre streak reached 39 races.

At the same time, Alexander Loginov had a great chance to rectify the situation, but he was let down by the standing shooting.

Loginov's speed and Garanichev's problems

Initially, three Russian athletes were supposed to compete in the first race of the season from the general start.

Alexander Loginov and Matvey Eliseev earned this right according to the position in the World Cup standings, and Evgeny Garanichev - according to the results of the sprint in Hochfilzen.

But at the last moment they were joined by Eduard Latypov, who was the first substitute and replaced the Norwegian Erlen Bjontegord, who had withdrawn from the competition.

Already on the first lap it became clear how the Russian biathletes were ready to fight at a distance.

Loginov felt confident in a large group and maintained the pace set by the leaders.

Garanichev quickly sank into the tail of the peloton, Eliseev and Latypov joined him a little later.

The first prone shooting allowed Garanichev and Eliseev to stay in the main group of participants along with Loginov.

All of them returned to a distance within ten seconds of the Slovenian Jacob Fak, while Latypov did not close one target.

But then only Loginov fought the leaders.

He ran side by side with the Norwegian biathletes, Eliseev tried to stay close, and Garanichev dropped to the end of the second ten.

A miss in the second shooting threw Eliseev to 20th place, while the rest of the Russians had a successful run.

Loginov remained in the leadership group, which was reduced to 12 people, and Garanichev rose to 13th position.

After returning to the distance, Loginov even walked first for some time, leading the rest of the participants.

But then the world champion was waiting for standing shooting, with which he continues to have problems.

The last time Loginov was accurate on two lines in the standing position was more than a year ago, at the KM-2019/20 stage in Hochfilzen.

This time he earned two penalty loops.

Garanichev went clean for the third shooting, but of the most accurate biathletes, he ran the slowest and did not even enter the top ten.

At the same time, Loginov's move looked great, at the level of the fastest participants.

When he hit all the targets in the final stage, he was only 36 seconds behind the leading Swede Martin Ponsiluome - about the same as the Russian left in the penalty loop.

As the final part of the race showed, one miss would theoretically allow Loginov to fight for bronze, but he finished tenth without surpassing his best result of the season.

In pure speed, Alexander became the fifth.

Garanichev made a mistake only in the fourth shooting, which completely deprived him of the meaning of fighting at a distance.

As a result, he finished 21st, right behind Eliseev, who missed three targets.

Latypov showed 23rd result and earned several cup points.

What place Loginov could count on with clean shooting was clearly shown by the German Arnd Peiffer, who at the finish was able to hold back Martin Ponsiluoma.

For German biathletes, this victory was the first in a year.

Bronze was taken by Tarjei Boe, who did not allow the Norwegians to be not on the podium in men's competitions for the first time this season.

Arnd Peiffer gets the first victory of the season for @skiverband 💪 - his first ever in a mass start!



🥇🇩🇪 Arnd Peiffer @skiverband


🥈🇸🇪 @ MartinPonsi @ SwedenBiathlon


🥉🇳🇴 @ tarjei_boe @ NSSF_Biathlonhttps: //t.co/bk5aBBso9Q#HOC20pic.twitter.com/AcTZB1JZkQ

- IBU World Cup (@IBU_WC) December 20, 2020

Five misses Kazakevich and a failed hat-trick Eckhoff

In the women's mass start, the representation of the Russian national team was very modest.

Only Irina Kazakevich managed to become a participant in the race, who was 61st in the sprint and did not even make it into the Saturday pursuit.

However, the forced day of rest could well help her cope with some rivals, for whom the schedule of three races in three days was difficult.

At first Kazakevich really looked good and moved from the tail of the general group to the middle.

The Russian woman even started her first prone shooting one of the first.

But on the third shot, the 23-year-old athlete made a mistake and became one of 19 participants in the race, earning at least one penalty loop.

Then Irina was in no hurry at a distance and by the second shooting let several rivals pass ahead, who had more misses.

But on the second attempt, she also could not work out the lying down cleanly.

The Russian woman dropped to 27th place, losing more than a minute to the leaders of the race.

The standing shooting was even worse for Kazakevich - she brought the number of misses to five (2 + 1).

And at the finish line, the Russian woman also caught on to the Swede Johanna Scotheim, who fell in front of her, and eventually took 24th place, losing almost three minutes to the winner.

By the time Kazakevich entered the last shooting range, Norwegian Marthe Olsbu-Roiseland was already running towards her second win of the season.

Gold in the mass start allowed her to keep the yellow jersey of the leader of the World Cup.

Second place was taken by her compatriot Tiril Eckhoff, who failed to repeat last year's winning hat-trick at the last pre-New Year stage.

Bronze was won by Dorothea Wierer, who was unable to climb the podium after winning the first race of the 2020/21 season.

The Mass Start World Champion wins the first mass start of the new season! 🇳🇴 Marte Olsbu Roeiseland will start in yellow! 🟨



🥇Marte Olsbu Roeiseland @NSSF_Biathlon


🥈 @ TirilEckhoff @ NSSF_Biathlon


🥉Dorothea Wierer @Fisiofficialhttps: //t.co/bk5aBBso9Q#HOC20pic.twitter.com/smuqybDSgc

- IBU World Cup (@IBU_WC) December 20, 2020