Two golds of Russia in a skeleton

The first European winter sports championships in 2021 were held last weekend.

Bobsledders and skeletonists competed in Winterberg, Germany, and sleds in Sigulda, Latvia.

And both tournaments turned out to be more than successful for Russian athletes.

Already on Friday, skeletonists Alexander Tretyakov and Elena Nikitina won gold awards.

The first to win was the 35-year-old Olympic champion Sochi.

In the men's competition, he was 0.17 seconds ahead of his main rival, the Latvian Martins Dukurs, and won the second gold of the continental championship in his career.

Tretyakov took his first medal of the highest standard back in 2007.

“A gold medal is always good and we are pleased with Alexander's result.

He did everything as we planned ... Tretyakov added at the start and rode well on the skeleton of Dirk Machenets, "R-Sport, the senior coach of the Russian national team Denis Alimov, quotes.

“Alexander was in the lead after the first race, and in the second he had a little hedge at the very beginning.

In order to exclude a runaway from the rut and pass the starting bend well, which is very important on this route, ”added the specialist.

Elena Nikitina supported Tretyakov's victorious initiative.

Her rivalry with four-time world champion German Tina Herman turned out to be much more exciting.

After the first attempt, the hostess of the competition was in the lead, ahead of the Russian woman by 0.02 seconds.

However, Elena passed the second race perfectly and eventually won 0.06 seconds over the German representative.

After the end of the competition, the athlete admitted that for her victory in Winterberg was a real miracle.

“Every year stages of the World Cup are held here, and now I finally won - on the ninth attempt.

When I finished, I realized that I had driven the second race better than the first.

But I knew that the Germans on their track feel much more confident and go faster ... Before the second attempt, the coach told me: "If you pass calmly, you will win."

And I didn't even look at the results of my rivals, "Nikitina admitted after the race.

In turn, Denis Alimov was glad that his ward did not flinch at a difficult moment and showed a fighting character.

“After the first run, we corrected the mistakes she made.

And Elena's second attempt went much better, she did well, ”explained the coach.

For the 28-year-old Muscovite, this victory at the European Championship became the fourth in her career, thanks to which she managed to repeat the record of the German Ani Huber in the number of gold medals at the continental championships.

Also, the Russian woman defended the title, which she won a year ago in Sigulda.

The tournament ended with the bronze medal of Rostislav Gaityukevich, Ilya Malykh, Mikhail Mordasov and Ruslan Samitov in the four-bean competition, which was a landmark for the Russian team.

This medal became for Russia the first award in this type of program at the European Championship in six years (in 2015, the crew of Alexander Kasyanov took silver).

The President of the Russian Bobsleigh Federation Elena Anikina called the success of Gaityukevich and his partners “a breath of fresh air”.

“I really hope that this success will become a strong incentive for Rostislav and the rest of the guys to achieve high results in the remaining stages of the World Cup and the World Championship in Altenberg.

We went to this award for a very long time, it is very important for the entire Russian bobsleigh ", - quotes the TASS functionary.

The Russian national team, with two gold and one bronze medals, finished the tournament in second place in the medal standings, leaving only the hosts ahead, who collected eight of the 16 awards (3-3-2).

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Ivanova's record in luge

Meanwhile, in Sigulda, the initiative of skeleton and bobsledders was supported by Russian sledges.

They also managed to complete the European Championship with two gold and one bronze medals.

Tatyana Ivanova became the main hero of the championship in the national team.

On Sunday, the 29-year-old athlete won the women's competition.

Moreover, she managed to leave behind the four-time Olympic champion Natalie Geisenberger.

The German woman lost 0.052 seconds to the Russian woman.

The third place was taken by another domestic luge Victoria Demchenko.

“Of course, I am very happy with the victory of Ivanova and the bronze of Demchenko.

On Saturday, the men were left without medals and upset us a little.

And the girls acted differently, everything rests on our fragile female shoulders.

I hoped that our women's team would compete for medals here and, as a result, did not fail in expectations, ”said Natalia Gart, President of the Russian Luge Federation.

After winning individual competitions, Ivanova helped her partners win gold in the team relay.

The domestic four also included Semyon Pavlichenko and the duet of Vsevolod Kashkin and Konstantin Korshunov.

The Russians were 0.167 seconds ahead of the hosts of the tournament.

The gold double in Sigulda allowed Ivanova to take the clear first place in the number of gold medals in the history of the European Luge Championships.

Now she has eight medals of the highest standard in her assets, and according to this indicator, she was ahead of the eminent German woman Silke Kraushar-Pilach.

In turn, Pavlichenko became the six-time European champion, equal to the German Felix Loch.

Ahead are two more representatives of Germany, who have long retired from their careers - Hans Rinn and Georg Hackl - who each have seven highest-standard awards.

The Russian national team managed to take first place in the medal standings of the tournament, since Germany and Latvia took only one gold each.

However, the head coach of the national team Sergei Chudinov urged the players not to attach too much importance to this success.

“After the first day, which turned out to be mediocre for us, a discussion took place in the evening.

The right words were found, which, as Sunday showed, reached the right addressees.

First of all, we are talking about Pavlichenko, who (on Saturday. -

RT

) made the same mistakes in both races.

Kashkin also benefited from the conversation.

Well, Ivanova, of course, became the main heroine of the tournament ... Immediately after the relay, I urged all athletes not to splash their emotions and calmly rejoice at the success.

The main starts are still ahead of us, we need to save gunpowder, ”the specialist noted.

The first victories of Sluyev and Nadyrshina in snowboarding

Another notable event for Russian fans over the weekend was the Russians' gold double at the Snowboard World Cup in Scuol, Switzerland.

Igor Sluyev, 21, and Sofia Nadyrshina, 17, won the parallel giant slalom.

Moreover, for both these awards of the highest standard became their debut at the Planet Cup.

Previously, Sluyev took first place in the Russian championship in parallel disciplines, and Nadyrshina twice became the winner of the youth world championship.

In Switzerland, they turned out to be stronger than their much more experienced compatriots.

In particular, in the men's competition Vic Wilde, the Olympic champion of Sochi in this discipline, remained only in tenth place.

And in the 1/8 finals, Sluyev knocked out the reigning world champion Dmitry Loginov from the fight.

Nadyrshina, for the second year in a row, got into the top three at the KM stage in Scuol.

In 2020, she lost only to German Ramona Theresia Hofmeister.

This time Sophia managed to bypass her rival in the last race and take a convincing revenge from her.

“I have the first place at the World Cup in Switzerland!

I am very glad that this year began with a victory.

Thanks to the fans and the coaching staff, ”the Russian woman wrote after the end of the stage on her Instagram.

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Publication from Nadyrshina Sofiya (@ nadyrshina.s)