Loginov's misses and Latypov's jerk
The Russian men's biathlon team won the bronze medal in the relay at the World Cup in Anterselva.
She managed to interrupt a streak of three races this season, in which the team finished fourth.
At the same time, the Russians were able to climb the podium even with a penalty loop.
The coaching staff of the Russian national team somewhat surprised with their choice of the composition for the relay.
The place of Alexander Loginov after the victory in the individual race was not contested, and he received the usual third stage.
On Friday, Yevgeny Garanichev also escaped failure, but he did not make it to the team.
But Matvey Eliseev turned out to be in it, despite the fact that the day before he did not go to the start and missed two training sessions.
Anton Babikov and Eduard Latypov, who were left without cup points, took the first and last stages of the relay.
But the bold decision of the coaches turned out to be extremely successful.
Babikov, from the very start, began to justify his confidence and very quickly closed all the targets at the first shooting.
The main competitors could only envy this - the Norwegian Sturla Legrade and the Frenchman Antonin Guigonna used two additional cartridges, and the Swede Peppe Femling went into the penalty loop.
Legrade set off in pursuit and almost overtook Babikov, in front of whom was only the German Erik Lesser.
The Russian was not strong on the move, but the shooting remained his trump card.
After the stand, he was the only biathlete who avoided mistakes.
Nevertheless, representatives of Norway and Germany were able to bypass him, but by no more than 6.5 seconds.
Babikov himself let his pursuers a little, including Guigonne.
He's the only one to hit all 10 targets without spare rounds and as a result, @ russianbiathlon's Anton Babikov leaves the range in first place after the standing shooting!
# ANT21 🙌https: //t.co/bk5aBBso9Qpic.twitter.com/u0esp7KAF6
- IBU World Cup (@IBU_WC) January 23, 2021
Eliseev did not rush things and even let his rivals go ahead, but he shot just as well as his predecessor.
The Russian national team took the lead, albeit rather shaky - ten seconds behind were not only Norwegian Johannes Dale, German Roman Res, French Kenten Fillon Maillet, but also Ukrainian Dmitry Pidruchny.
In his second shooting, Eliseev made the first mistake for the team.
The closest competitors had more serious problems - the Frenchman and the Ukrainian had to fix three misfires each, and the Norwegian went into the penalty loop.
The Russian, upon returning to the track, began to share the leadership with the Italian Tommaso Dzhakomel, who was not even a competitor to Eliseev.
The Russian was able to come off immediately for 12 seconds, providing Loginov with a comfortable start.
The winner of the individual race immediately began to strengthen his leadership.
He not only ran faster than his pursuers, but also put all the cartridges on target.
After lying down, Loginov already had an 18-second reserve.
Only Tarja Boe, who ran fifth, managed to close the gap, and the Norwegian played only a couple of seconds on his second lap.
Such an excellent state of affairs for the Russian national team did not last long.
At the counter, old problems returned to Loginov.
He tried to close the same target for too long and eventually left it gaping black.
He was immediately approached by the Frenchman Simon Detjeu, the German Arnd Peiffer and the Italian Thomas Bormolini.
The four of them were seven seconds apart, and Boe reduced the gap from the Russian biathlete to 15 seconds.
Bormolini was clearly superfluous in this company, and he did not mind that Loginov returned to the top three, and Bo pulled up to fourth place.
Eduard Latypov took over the baton eight seconds away from the national teams of France and Germany, represented at the last stage by Emilien Jacquelin and Benedict Doll, and Johannes Boe was only ten seconds behind.
The Norwegian played the gap almost immediately, so that Latypov needed to shoot cleanly to win.
While lying down, he coped with this task, just like Beo Jr.
Jacquelin and Doll had to retreat because of mistakes.
On the second lap, biathletes from Norway and France significantly accelerated, and the German athlete was 13 seconds behind Latypov.
This state of affairs made it possible to compete for bronze.
The final shooting was in favor of the leaders - Boe and Jacquelin started to play for gold when Doll and Latypov were just getting ready for the stand.
They both used a few extra rounds, but avoided penalty loops and also had to compete for a medal at a distance.
Doll launched attacks to which Latypov successfully responded.
At the stadium it was his turn to accelerate, and then the German surrendered.
The Russian national team won the first medal in the relay from the 2019 World Cup.
The victory was won by the French - Jacquelin managed to break the resistance of Beu Jr. on the final straight.
Cocorico!
It's a French Saturday in @biathlonantholz - the men grab the victory in the relay!
# ANT21 🎉
🥇🇫🇷 @FedFranceSki
🥈🇳🇴 @NSSF_Biathlon
🥉🇷🇺 @russianbiathlonhttps: //t.co/bk5aBBso9Qpic.twitter.com/BgMWRwVYGK
- IBU World Cup (@IBU_WC) January 23, 2021
Unrealized chances of Mironova and Pavlova
Earlier in the day, women competed for medals in the mass start.
A whole four athletes from the Russian national team were selected for it - there has not been such a large representation among the 30 best biathletes in the world since the stage in Ruhpolding in January 2019.
Then none of the Russian participants was in the top 15, and Evgenia Pavlova, even with clean shooting, was in 28th place.
Two years later, Pavlova could already be considered a medal contender along with Svetlana Mironova and Ulyana Kaisheva - they confirmed this in the individual race.
Complementing the Russian four was Larisa Kuklina, who took 14th place high for herself on Thursday.
At the first shooting range of the mass start, more than half of the girls worked cleanly.
Among them were two Russians - Pavlova and Mironova, who even entered the six fastest shooters.
Kuklina and Kaisheva were unable to avoid mistakes and earned a penalty loop.
They did not impress with the move and after returning to the track they began to lag behind, and Mironova and Pavlova were confidently in the main group.
After the second shooting, the peloton continued to shrink, and the leadership now belonged to eight athletes who did not commit a single miss.
Mironova and Pavlova were just among them - they fired not so fast, but reliably.
In the course of the third lap, the Norwegian Caroline Knotten fell out of the sniper group, but she was replaced by the dangerous compatriot Tiril Eckhoff.
The same eight athletes approached the first stand almost simultaneously.
And they returned to the track immediately after the shooting range in half.
Swedes Lynn Persson and Hanna Oeberg with Austrian Lisa Teresa Hauser made the first mistakes, and Eckhoff returned to the already familiar penalty loop.
Mironova and Pavlova again closed all targets and secured themselves in the top four along with the Germans Vanessa Hinz and Franziska Preuss.
On the penultimate lap, Mironova broke away from her rivals and was ahead by 12.5 seconds - so she earned herself the right to one mistake in the fourth shooting.
But these efforts were in vain - the Russian woman missed the last two shots.
The closest rivals also misfired, and Pavlova now had a chance for a medal, but she also earned herself an extra 300 meters.
Mironova returned to the track after Oeberg, Hauser, Preuss, Czech Marketa Davidova and French Julie Simon.
This will be a crazy last loop - with the same faces we saw last week in Oberhof fight it out for the win!
@hannaaaoberg, Lisa Theresa Hauser and Marketa Davidova lead but Julia Simon is only 10 seconds behind despite 3 penalty loops!
# ANT21https: //t.co/bk5aBBso9Qpic.twitter.com/m47Iz6Qd7c
- IBU World Cup (@IBU_WC) January 23, 2021
But the recent breakthrough left Mironova without a reserve of strength for the last lap.
She could not get close to her rivals and finished sixth.
Simon won the second mass start in a row, Oeberg was just 0.2 seconds behind the Frenchwoman, the third was the winner of the individual race Hauser.
Pavlova took 11th place, and immediately after her was Kuklina - after a miss in the first shooting, she no longer made a single mistake.
Kaisheva finished the race 22nd with three misfires on the bench.
Mass start Deja-Vu - just like in Oberhof, Julia Simon wins after last loop heroics!
@ biathlonantholz # ANT21
🥇🇫🇷 Julia Simon @FedFranceSki
🥈🇸🇪 @ hannaaaoberg @ SwedenBiathlon
🥉🇦🇹 Lisa Theresa Hauser @OESVbiathlonhttps: //t.co/bk5aBBso9Qpic.twitter.com/fgT5miBAi6
- IBU World Cup (@IBU_WC) January 23, 2021