Another incident in cross-country skiing
On the second day of the World Cup in cross-country skiing in Ulricehamn, medals were played in the team sprint with skating.
The Russian national team, as on Saturday, was represented only by Sergei Ustyugov and Gleb Retivykh.
Together they had every chance, if not to win the competition, then at least to get on the podium, since both reached the final in their personal sprint, and Zetivykh became the second.
However, the Russian skiers finished the fight already at the semi-final stage.
For almost the entire preliminary race, the team was doing well - Ustyugov saved strength in the first two stages, and then accelerated and passed the baton to the Zealous first.
The silver medalist of Saturday's competition only needed to run the last stage and finish alongside the main rivals in his power to qualify for the final.
When there were several hundred meters left to the end of the distance, Retivykh suddenly fell into a blockage.
Finn Werneri Suhonen, who was running in tandem with Yoni Mäki, bumped onto his ski, fell and pulled the Russian with him.
If this incident had occurred at an earlier stage, it would still have been possible to save the race, but the Zealous had no chance in this case.
He finished only ninth, after which he criticized the actions of the Finn.
“We are in love with the Finnish team, it turns out.
Very disappointing.
For so long we dreamed of performing with Sergei together, ten years later we ran with him ... I don't know how to run without a head.
I walk along the nearest radius, to my right there are only billboards, and to my left - Sukhonen.
Why jump and cut me off?
He just impudently jumps on my skis - as a result, a fall.
I don’t understand at all how this can be ... I don’t understand.
There is a turn, I am in the close radius, and the Finn wants to go somewhere else.
Jumps at me on purpose.
The result is a fall.
I couldn't do anything.
There was a man in front of me, and Verneri had the opportunity to simply follow his own trajectory, "Retivykh told Match TV.
The athlete said that the coach of the Russian national team, Markus Kramer, appealed to Pierre Miniere, the race director of the International Ski Federation (FIS), about Sukhonen's actions.
Zealous said that the Finn did not even receive a warning for his maneuver.
This is not the first time in recent years that Russian skiers have suffered from collisions with Finnish athletes.
Two weeks earlier, a contact occurred between Alexander Bolshunov and Myaki at the finish of the relay, because of which the World Cup leader remained in third place.
Because of this, the Russian could not hold back his emotions and after the race pushed his opponent away, for which he was disqualified.
Triumph of snowboarders in Magnitogorsk
The Bannoe ski resort near Magnitogorsk hosted the World Cup in snowboarding in slalom disciplines at the weekend.
These competitions were the last before the World Championships, which will take place in early March in the Slovenian Rogla.
Success on the slopes of the South Urals was accompanied primarily by the Russian men's team - in two days it missed only one bronze medal.
Dmitry Loginov became the hero of the stage.
The two-time world champion for the entire season was able to win only one silver, and in Bannom he won two victories at once.
First, in the final of the parallel giant slalom competition, he bypassed his teammate Igor Sluyev, and then in the parallel slalom he took over Stepan Naumov, who won his first medal at the World Cup stages.
The veteran of the national team Andrei Sobolev also added to his collection of awards - he took third place in the traditional slalom.
After the stage in Magnitogorsk, the Russians also topped all possible men's World Cup ratings.
Loginov took the lead in the overall standings and in the parallel slalom, and Sluyev rose to first place in the "giant" standings.
In March, after the World Cup, only two starts will take place, and the Russian team has every chance of winning three Crystal Globes at once.
Unfortunately, it was not possible to successfully perform with the main rising star of snowboard Sofia Nadyrshina.
The 17-year-old athlete, who, before her visit to Magnitogorsk, was the leader of both the general and slalom world Cup scores, twice lost on the track to the Austrian Sabine Schöffman and flew out before even reaching the semifinals.
Other Russian women failed to replace their leader, none of them won medals.
Nadyrshina still managed to maintain the lead in the parallel slalom standings, but in general dropped to the second place, missing the German Ramona Theresia Hofmeister.
Luge failures in St. Moritz
In luge sports, the competitive season has come to an end.
The results of the World Cup were summed up in the Swiss St. Moritz, where the local track made of natural snow and ice again hosted sledgers for the first time in nine years.
For the Russian team, the main question was whether Semyon Pavlichenko could stay in third place in the overall standings.
In the previous four years, Russian athletes have invariably been among the top three, and this season was no exception.
Although the athlete himself took only 16th place, his main competitor, Dominic Fischnaller from Italy, was only one line higher.
True, in the small standings of men's single sleds, Pavlyuchenko could not resist in the top three.
He was knocked out of there by the winner of the stage Nico Gleirscher from Austria.
The men's competition took place on Saturday, and on Sunday, St. Moritz was hit by heavy snowfall, which caused many surprises in the results in the women's single sleigh, and the team relay had to be canceled. The bad weather did not even allow the Ukrainian team to get to the track - they did not manage to clear the road from its hotel. The Russian woman Tatyana Ivanova also had a chance to get into the top three of the World Cup by the last stage, but she took the penultimate place and finished the season fifth in the women's overall standings.