New Year's gift: Eliseev and Pavlova won the "Christmas race" biathlon in Germany

The hard fate of the race

The "Christmas Race" has long become a part of the international biathlon calendar and is loved by fans.

The commercial start, dating back to 2002, arouses great interest among sports fans and closes the next year. 

However, in the difficult 2020, the competition was under the threat of cancellation.

The Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen, which traditionally hosts the race, this time canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

There was a possibility that it would not take place at all, but a way out was found, and the start was postponed to Ruhpolding.

The local Chiemgau Arena usually hosts the World Cup races, but this season both German stages will be held in Oberhof.

Thus, the "Christmas Race" became a kind of consolation prize for Ruhpolding. 

At the same time, there was no talk of the presence of people in the stands because of the coronavirus pandemic.

But the TV audience of the competition should have turned out to be even more solid.

Not without interest, the "Christmas Race" has always been followed in Russia, as domestic biathletes have repeatedly achieved success in it.

In 2007, Ekaterina Yurieva and Dmitry Yaroshenko won in Gelsenkirchen, in 2010/11 - Svetlana Sleptsova and Evgeny Ustyugov, in 2012 - Ekaterina Yurlova and Anton Shipulin, and in 2017 - Yurlova-Perkht and Alexey Volkov ... 

True, in recent years, the Russians have not achieved success here.

So, last year Yulova-Perkht and Matvey Eliseev took the last, tenth place, and in 2018 Yurlova-Perkht and Shipulin finished eighth.

Ekaterina treated the "Christmas Race" with special warmth and regularly took part in it, but once again her pregnancy prevented her from getting to the start.

In the absence of an experienced biathlete, Yevgenia Pavlova made up a pair of Eliseev. 

However, in 2020, many other strong biathletes did not come to Gelsenkirchen.

For example, Norway and France decided not to exhibit their duets.

The hosts traditionally formed two pairs at once: Denise Herrman - Benedict Doll and Franziska Preuss - Simon Schempp.

The main favorites were the experienced Italians Dorothea Wierer and Lucas Hofer, who regularly take part in the "Christmas Race".

They won in 2018.

The Austrians Lisa Teresa Hauser and Julian Eberhard also intended to compete for gold.

The Ukrainian duet of the Olympic champion Vita Semerenko and the world champion Dmitry Pidruchny also attracted attention. 

Russia's victory in the mass start

It was not easy to include the Russians among the favorites, because the national team did not start the new season of the World Cup very successfully and has not yet managed to win a single medal.

In particular, Pavlova at the KM stages in personal races did not rise above the 13th place, and Eliseev - 14th. 

However, in Ruhpolding, Evgenia and Matvey managed to please the fans.

In heavy snow, they did not shine with high speed, but they shot well, which was especially important in a mass start with eight firing lines.

The Russians made the fewest mistakes - only three. 

At the same time, they did not seek to take the leading positions.

For a long time, the domestic duo held on to the backs of Schempp and Preuss.

Also in the top three were Wierer and Hofer.

But Herrman and Doll had serious problems due to weak work on the Denise lines.

The first German duo had a total of nine penalties.

The Russians wavered only once.

At the third shooting range, Pavlova made two penalties, and the domestic duo fell back to fifth place.

It seemed that this failure could psychologically break the athletes, but this did not happen. 

On the contrary, Eliseev powerfully completed his stage and passed the baton to his partner already third with a lag of 17 seconds.

Evgenia corrected herself, took advantage of the mistakes of her rivals and came close to the leading Preuss and Schempp. 

And after the successful work of Eliseev, Russia even took the lead in the race for the first time.

However, the Germans soon regained their first place.

Everything was decided at the last stage.

Matvey easily caught up with Shempp at a distance, and they came to the firing line together.

At the counter, the Russian worked unexpectedly calmly.

He clearly closed all five targets, while Simon made one mistake.

This allowed the domestic duo to break away from the closest pursuers by more than 18 seconds and ensured the victory in the mass start.

The second place was taken by Preuss and Schempp, and the third - by Hauser and Eberhard (+50.2). 

Maintaining the lead in the pursuit

However, in the pursuit race, the gap between the Germans and the Russians, according to the rules of the "Christmas Race", was halved, and the Austrians had 45 seconds.

The hosts not only quickly caught up with the leader, but also came out on top after changing the stage.

Austria and the second German duet also moved up to Russia and Germany. 

It became especially alarming for the domestic pair after the first stand, when Pavlova made one mistake and was three seconds behind Preuss.

At the same time, the fast Herrman approached her closely. 

However, in the future, the Russians practically did not make mistakes.

Both continued to work almost perfectly on the firing lines.

In this component, they again became the best - only two misses. 

But the group of pursuers was mistaken, and closer to the middle of the race it became clear that Pavlova with Eliseev and Preuss with Shempp would most likely compete for the victory.

The main intrigue was only who was the first to falter. 

Fortunately, Simon made a fateful mistake, as in the mass start.

While lying down, with almost complete absence of wind, he managed not to close two targets while Matvey worked cleanly.

And now the advantage of Russia over the closest pursuers from Italy was 24.5 seconds. 

There was a fear that domestic athletes would still tremble at the decisive moment, but this did not happen.

Pavlova passed her last line without mistakes, but Eliseev still made one mistake.

But Hofer, Eberhard and Doll responded in the same way. 

Only Schempp worked cleanly, who managed to close the gap with Russia to nine seconds.

However, in the last meters of the distance, it became obvious that the German had no strength left to chase. 

Eliseev calmly finished first and secured Russia's fifth victory in the history of the "Christmas Race".

According to this indicator, domestic biathletes caught up with the Norwegians.

The Germans were content with second and third places.

Preuss and Schempp won silver, while Herrmann and Doll won bronze.