Short track

The European Short Track Speed ​​Skating Championships kicked off in Gdansk, Poland on Friday.

For the second day of competition, when the drawing of awards began, it brought the country three medals.

At a distance of 1500 meters for men, the victory was won by the 30-year-old world and European champion Semyon Elistratov.

Another Russian Denis Hayrapetyan finished after him.

Much more unexpected was the success of the young Konstantin Ivliev at the "five hundred meters".

He was more than 0.1 seconds ahead of Pietro Siegel and for the first time in his career became the owner of the highest award of the European Championship.

The Russians were not left without medals.

Sofya Prosvirnova took third place at a distance of 1500 meters, losing to Suzanne Schülting and Anna Seidel.

Elistratov's winning streak continued on Sunday.

He finished first in 1000 m. Along the way, Semyon managed to secure himself a confident leadership in the all-around with 71 points.

Siegel and Yitzhak de Laat were 16 points behind him.

“I’ll say very simply.

What makes a man out of a monkey?

Work and desire to work and improve.

I calmly prepared for the tournament, and that's the result.

I am very happy that I became the European champion in the all-around, probably, this confirms my stability, "- quotes the words of the athlete" R-Sport ". 

Schülting won the all-around for women and was the first in all individual races (102 points).

Prosvirnova with one bronze medal was placed third (53).

The championship ended in relay races.

The Russian men managed to put another medal in the team's piggy bank - a bronze one.

Women took first place at all.

However, the joy was short-lived.

Immediately after the end of the race, the national team was disqualified for violating the rules for passing the distance.  

As a result, the national team finished the tournament in second place in the unofficial team standings with eight medals in the asset, four of which are gold.

The first line was taken by short trackers from the Netherlands, who brought their country 12 awards (five - the highest standard).

Skating

For the first time in a long time, skaters also went out on the ice.

It was planned that the World Cup will begin in November, but the coronavirus pandemic has made adjustments to these plans, and the first four stages were canceled.

As a result, only two will take place (both in Heerenveen), the results of which will be taken into account when qualifying for the World Cup.

The only gold medal at the weekend of Russia was brought by Artyom Arefiev.

Moreover, he managed to win the first victory in his career at the KM stages.

The athlete had no equal in the second race of 500 meters.

The Russian has updated his personal record - 34.459 seconds.

World champion Ruslan Murashov won the bronze in the first race at this distance.

“Sprint is all about talent and data.

Arefiev is a very talented sprinter.

We were expecting that Artyom would also break the junior world records.

Even on Saturday, Artyom ran with mistakes, but it was already clear that he is capable of a very high result.

So it lives up to expectations.

And for us, his victory is not a surprise, "R-Sport quotes the executive director of the Russian Skating Union, Varvara Barysheva.

Russian speed skaters also successfully competed at the shortest distance, winning three medals.

And Angelina Golikova took two silver medals at once.

In the second race, Olga Fatkulina joined her on the podium, showing the third result.

But the world championship medalist Daria Kachanova, for sure, regretted that she had gone to the start, because the fall prevented her from taking part in the “thousand-meter race”.

Sergey Trofimov also managed to win a medal on Sunday.

He took third place in the longest distance - 5000 m. The Russian lost to two representatives of the Netherlands Patrick Rust and Sven Kramer.

But for one of the leaders of the national team, Pavel Kulizhnikov, the tournament was not very successful.

The first start in the current international season ended in a fall for him.

The holder of two world records could not stand on his feet at the "five hundred meters" on Saturday.

As a result, he was forced to flee only in the B division, where he won first place.

And at a distance of 1000 m, Kulizhnikov was content with bronze.

Two Dutchmen Thomas Krol and Kai Verbay were ahead of Pavel. 

Freestyle 

On Saturday, Moscow hosted the 11th World Cup in ski acrobatics.

The Russian fans had a reason to rejoice for Maxim Burov - he won his fourth victory in a row, becoming even closer to his second "Crystal Globe". 

Burov was the strongest in every round - both in qualification, and in the first final attempt, and in the second.

For his main jump, he scored 126.24 points, almost ten points ahead of silver medalist Christopher Lillis of the United States.

The third place was taken by Noe Roth from Switzerland. 

This season, the 22-year-old Russian confidently leads the overall standings and is unlikely to miss first place, even if he misses one of the three remaining stages in Belarus, the United States and Kazakhstan. 

In the women's competition, Lyubov Nikitina showed the best result among the Russians.

The vice-world champion took fourth place, she is in the same position in the overall standings. 

Luge 

Innsbruck hosted the penultimate stage of the Luge World Cup.

The Austrian track has already hosted the best lugers of the planet this season, but due to the coronavirus, it had to hold the competition again. 

In November, Russian athletes failed to win awards in individual disciplines, but this time Semyon Pavlichenko was lucky.

In single sled races, he took second place and won his first medal of the season.

At the same time, the gold was very close - the Russian was in the lead after the first descent, and after the second he lost only 0.006 seconds to the German Felix Loch. 

On the last day of the competition, Pavlichenko nevertheless climbed to the highest step of the podium.

He won the sprint competition, setting a track record in this discipline.

This set of medals allowed the Russian to improve his position in the overall standings and climb to third place.

At the final stage in St. Moritz, he will even have a chance to dislodge German Johannes Ludwig from second place.

Bobsleigh and skeleton

But the stage of the World Cup in bobsleigh and skeleton in the German Königssee turned out to be not very successful for the Russians.

Domestic bobsledders were left without awards at all and in none of the three types of the program.

In the skeleton, Alexander Tretyakov managed to take the third line.

The first race turned out to be frankly unsuccessful for the Olympic champion, but in the second he managed to correct his mistakes and, as a result, even climbed the podium, letting Alexander Gassner and Yun Soon Bin go ahead.

In the women's competition, Elena Nikita, on the contrary, after the first race was the second.

However, the next one almost ended in tragedy.

The domestic athlete made a gross mistake in one of the bends and only miraculously did not fly out of the skeleton.

As a result, she dropped to fifth place.