A miss at the last line was worth Kuklina gold

The starting positions of the Russian women before the pursuit at the European Biathlon Championships in Poland were very promising.

Anastasia Shevchenko ran a distance of the third, ten seconds from Baiba Bendika from Latvia and four seconds from the Norwegian Caroline Erdal.

Larisa Kuklina and Valeria Vasnetsova were losing to their teammate for about two seconds.

Even Natalia Gerbulova, who received the 21st starting number, had a chance to join the fight for medals - she was 39 seconds behind the top three, and two girls in front of her decided not to start.

On the first lap Bendeka and Erdal did not allow the Russians to approach them.

Only Kuklina tried to get close to them, having reduced the gap to seven seconds.

Shevchenko and Vasnetsova did not force events and ran at their own pace, trying not to catch their breath before shooting.

True, this did not help young biathletes to avoid mistakes at the turn.

Vasnetsova made one mistake, and Shevchenko, who had no misfires in the first two races, earned three penalties.

Kuklina coped with the shooting and took the lead - Bendeka and Erdal did not close one target either.

Kuklina decided to go through the second lap more calmly, since the gap from the Swede Ingla Andersson was quite comfortable.

The Russian woman again worked the next lie with confidence, having closed all the targets.

Her advantage over the closest rival, which was the Norwegian Emily Kalkenberg, increased to 23 seconds.

By that time, Gerbulova became the second among the Russian women, finishing the top ten.

Kuklina could afford one mistake on the stand, and she immediately used this right, and then made another mistake, putting her leadership in the race into question.

Fortunately, the pursuers who arrived half a minute later were also not perfect.

Kalkenberg went into three penalty loops, and the other athletes went into at least one.

Kuklina remained the first, but Erdal and Andersson entered the track right behind her, and a little later they were joined by another Norwegian Osne Skrede and a Polish girl Kamila Zhuk.

At the last shooting, all the rivals, except for the hostess of the competition, gave Kuklina a chance to break into first place.

But the Russian woman made another mistake with the last shot.

Beetle, with zero misses, rose from 18th position at the start to first.

Erdal and Kuklina lost about 17 seconds after passing the penalty loop.

🇵🇱 K. Zuk clears final shooting and is in the lead.

🇳🇴 K. Erdal 2nd, 16.4 seconds behind.

🇷🇺 L. Kuklina 3rd 18.9 seconds back.

# OECH21pic.twitter.com / DsyA5pG4NF

- IBU Cup Biathlon (@IBU_CUP) January 30, 2021

The fight for silver at Kuklina did not work out right away.

Erdal accelerated, leaving behind the Russians.

At the same time, Skrede began to approach her.

As a result, before the finish line, Kuklina returned to the fourth position, from which she began the race.

Gerbulova finished eighth, one minute behind Zhuk - the fight for a medal without two penalties was really possible for her.

Anastasia Goreeva played 13 positions and became 17th.

Three more Russians are compactly located at the end of the third ten.

As a result, Shevchenko made five mistakes, and Vasnetsova made seven, extending her distance by more than a kilometer.

Polina Shevnina finished between them.

End of Khalili's Sniper Series

After Kuklina's failure, only two representatives of the men's team had a chance for the first personal gold for the Russian national team.

Said Karimullah Khalili started second in pursuit, just seven seconds behind Swiss Martin Yeager.

And Daniil Serokhvostov, who took tenth place in the sprint with the fourth move among all participants, was only 20 seconds behind the third place.

On the first lap Serokhvostov ran noticeably faster than those in front of him.

At the same time, Khalili still did not please with the move and allowed the German Johannes Kühn to get around him.

But the young Russian of Afghan origin once again carried out the shooting brilliantly and continued to lead along with Yeager and Kuhn.

At Serokhvostov's, however, lying turned into a disaster - he missed the first shot, began to aim for a long time, but in the end he hit only one target.

The second shooting kicked Khalili out of the lead.

He made his first mistake in the European Championship only at the eighth shooting range (in the previous two races he shot perfectly) and after passing the penalty loop he dropped to eighth place.

He began to lose to Kühne 33 seconds, and to Yeager, who finished the first three, 11 seconds.

Meanwhile, Nikita Porshnev, thanks to clean shooting from 35th place at the start, climbed to 16th.

Khalili's position in front of the counter was not yet hopeless.

Although he ran worse than the leaders in the race, in the third shooting, almost all of them made mistakes.

But the Russian could not cope with his nerves and made two mistakes.

He returned to the track after Porshnev, who was confidently approaching the top ten.

However, a recent World Cup racer was unable to complete the entire graze without fail.

On the final shooting, one miss threw Porshnev to 18th place, and Khalili took 16th place.

In the end, Semyon Suchilov turned out to be the best in the Russian national team - even with four penalties, he finished 14th, starting 23rd.

The victory was won by the Ukrainian Artyom Prima, who snatched gold from the Czech Michal Krchmar with three penalties.

Bronze was won by the Norwegian Howard Bogetveit.

For the first gold of the European Championship, the Russians will try to compete in the mixed relay races, which will be held on Sunday.

🇺🇦 A. Pryma claims the 🥇.

🇨🇿 M. Krcmar 🥈.

🇳🇴 HG Bogetveit 🥉.

# OECH21pic.twitter.com / maVR9B8yll

- IBU Cup Biathlon (@IBU_CUP) January 30, 2021