Mixed relay
Result this season:
1st place (Oberhof-1).
Results for the last World Cup:
4th place (2019), 6th place (2020).
The mixed relay, which will open the World Cup in Pokljuka, will have the highest expectations for Russian fans.
During the season, only one such race took place, and it was the Russian national team that became its winner.
Ulyana Kaisheva, Svetlana Mironova, Alexander Loginov and Eduard Latypov will try on February 10 to repeat their same result shown at the stage in Oberhof.
True, they will have different rivals now.
Last time, a singlemixt was held simultaneously with the mixed relay, and many world stars took part in it.
At the World Championships, these disciplines are bred on different days, and it is already known for sure that the leader of the overall World Cup ranking Johannes Boe from Norway will start.
The teams from Sweden and Italy will also have room for maneuver.
The increased competition will have a strong impact on the prospects of the Russian national team, because the victory in Oberhof was not very convincing - Latypov won only 0.7 seconds against the Norwegian Sturla Legrade and 12.1 seconds against the Frenchman Kanten Fillon Maillet.
Still, there will be chances for the first medal since 2017, since the composition of the Russians is quite balanced and does not have weak links.
In addition, a new format can change the balance of power - now men will start the race and women will finish.
Sprint
Best results this season
- men:
Eliseev (10th, Oberhof-2), Latypov (11th, Oberhof-1), Loginov (12th, Kontiolahti-1);
- women:
Pavlova (6th, Oberhof-1), Mironova (10th, Kontiolahti-2), Kazakevich (13th, Kontiolahti-2).
Best results at recent World Championships
- men:
Loginov (1st, 2020 and 2nd, 2019), Eliseev (12th, 2020);
- women:
Yurlova-Perkht (8th, 2019 and 21st, 2020), Pavlova (24th, 2019).
Sprint is the weak point of the Russian men's team.
In six races this season, there was only one hit in the top ten - Matvey Eliseev in Oberhof.
There was no real fight for medals at any start, and almost always the reason for this was the low speed of biathletes.
If they were in the top ten in pure time at a distance, they still lost to the leaders, mainly from the Norwegian national team, for about a minute.
There was only one exception, when Alexander Loginov lost only 35 seconds in Kontiolahti, but then he was let down by three penalties on the stand.
However, the native of Saratov managed to bring himself to the past world championships and it was in the sprint to win two medals.
Both times for this he needed to shoot absolutely exactly, with which Loginov has problems this season - he performed without misses only once, at the winning individual race in Anterselva.
The girls' sprint situation is even worse, even taking into account the sixth place of Evgenia Pavlova in Oberhof.
In some races, the Russians barely got into the top thirty in speed, which almost ruled out any struggle for high places.
Svetlana Mironova ran the fastest in the national team, but still her performance was not at the level of world leaders, and the average number of misses in the sprint is more than two.
Pursuit
Best results this season
- men:
Garanichev (14th, Hochfilzen-1), Eliseev (16th, Oberhof-1), Loginov (17th, Oberhof-1);
- women:
Mironova (4th, Oberhof-1 and 14th, Kontiolahti-2), Pavlova (13th, Kontiolahti-2), Kazakevich (14th, Hochfilzen-1).
Best results at recent World Championships
- men:
Loginov (3rd, 2020 and 14th, 2019), Garanichev (9th, 2019);
- women:
Pavlova (9th, 2019), Yurlova-Perkht (12th, 2020 and 19th, 2019).
The results in pursuit races are highly dependent on the sprint, and the performance of the Russian men's team confirms this.
In this discipline, not only medals, but getting into the top 15 happened only once in four races.
In most cases, the Russians managed to rise from their starting positions, but most often it was a struggle for places in the middle of the protocol, where it is easier to recoup than at the top.
Men were not among the leaders either in absolute time in the race or in pure speed.
Anton Babikov showed himself brightest in Hochfilzen, when, thanks to accurate shooting, he showed the seventh result in the pursuit, but because of the start in 57th place, he did not even get into the top thirty in the end.
Loginov's statistics in this discipline are not very happy - on average, three misses in one race make it impossible to fight for a medal, even if he defends the sprint world champion title with a decent margin.
For women, the dependence on starting positions is not so strong.
They have a higher density of results in the sprint, and at long distances there are large gaps between the athletes.
This helped Svetlana Mironova once rise from 16th place to fourth, showing at the same time the third absolute race time with two penalties.
Even a start outside the top ten allows the Russian women to hope for a medal, if they manage to keep up with the leaders at a distance and show clean shooting.
True, no one has yet fulfilled this condition this season.
The last Russian woman to cleanly run the pursuit was Larisa Kuklina back in December 2019.
Individual race
Best results this season
- men:
Loginov (1st, Anterselva and 10th, Kontiolahti-1), Garanichev (14th, Anterselva)
- women:
Pavlova (6th, Anterselva), Mironova (7th, Anterselva), Kaisheva (9th, Anterselva).
Best results at recent World Championships
- men:
Garanichev (7th, 2019), Porshnev (1st, 2020), Loginov (14th, 2019), Garanichev (14th, 2020);
- women:
Yurlova-Perkht (13th, 2020), Kuklina (16th, 2019), Yurlova-Perkht (17th, 2019).
If Russian biathletes rarely show high speed, then the individual race comes to the rescue.
The results of the last stage in Anterselva clearly demonstrated that you can lose one or two minutes with a move, but if you shoot cleanly, then the medals become almost guaranteed.
And we are talking not only about Loginov, who just took advantage of his chance and won the only personal gold, but also those who are on the sidelines in the team.
If we imagine that no one in the men's team would have earned penalty minutes, then the Russians would have taken the entire top three, and Kirill Streltsov would have been in fifth place.
The same applies to girls - Pavlova, Mironova and Kaisheva could occupy the entire podium, and Tatyana Akimova and Irina Kazakevich would have the right to count on the first six.
They all ran the longest distance of the season well enough to fight for the award without shooting mistakes.
At the World Championships, this situation may well repeat itself if someone manages to pass each of the four lines cleanly.
The results of the last World Championships show that accurate shooting could bring a medal to almost any biathlete from the Russian national team.
By the way, Ekaterina Yurlova-Perkht won the last victory in the individual race in 2015 thanks to the fact that she closed all 20 targets.
Singlemixt
The result of the Russian national team in the season:
9th place (Oberhof-1);
Results for the last two World Championships:
6th place (2019), 7th place (2020).
The prospects of Russians in the youngest biathlon discipline will largely depend on the composition chosen for it.
So far, the coaching staff deprives of their attention this type of program and does not put the strongest athletes on it.
At the last world championships it was definitely Alexander Loginov and Ekaterina Yurlova-Perkht, but both times Matvey Eliseev ran with Pavlova or Kuklina.
In Pokljuka, the singlemixt will take place the day after the men's individual race and the day after the women's, so one can hardly expect that the line-up will be chosen by the fighting.
This season, the coaches again tried Eliseev together with Pavlova, which was quite logical after their victory in the "Christmas Race", but in Oberhof they finished ninth.
At the same time, the guys ran quite well and at each stage were in the top six in pure speed.
Considering that it is Eliseev and Pavlova who are the best familiar with the singlemix format and prefer to run shorter distances, they will have the greatest chance of getting into the squad, but they will again have to fight with much stronger athletes.
Relay race
Results this season
- men:
3rd (Anterselva), 4th (Kontiolahti-2, Hochfilzen-1, Oberhof-2)
- women:
1st (Anterselva), 4th (Kontiolahti-2, Oberhof-2).
Results at the last World Championships
- men:
3rd (2019), 4th (2020);
- women:
5th (2019), 8th (2020).
The main day for Russian biathletes will be February 20, when medals in two relay races will be played.
In both disciplines, the Russians will claim high places or even victory, as experts say.
The impressive stability speaks in favor of men.
They last dropped below fourth place in December 2019.
After that, in all races, they fought a real fight for the podium, although they ended up on it only once.
It was possible to interrupt the mediocre streak in Anterselva, and even Loginov's penalty loop did not prevent this.
This indicates the strength of the composition that went to the start.
If Anton Babikov and Eliseev manage to cope with the shooting again, and Loginov and Eduard Latypov do not disappoint at a distance, then they will not have to drop below third place.
The women's team also formed an even composition.
Evgenia Pavlova, Tatyana Akimova, Svetlana Mironova and Ulyana Kaisheva confirmed this in the same place in Anterselva, where they won.
Each of them at their stage was in the top eight, which no other team could boast of - Norway, Sweden, Germany, and France gave serious weakness at least at one stage.
If in Pokljuka the Russians again avoid mistakes in shooting, they will be able to hope for the first medals in the relay in 12 years.
Mass start
Best results this season
- men:
Eliseev (6th, Oberhof-2), Loginov (10th, Hochfilzen-2 and 19th, Anterselva)
- women:
Mironova (6th, Anterselva and 11th, Oberhof-2), Pavlova (11th, Anterselva).
Best results at recent World Championships
- men:
Loginov (4th, 2019), Garanichev (16th, 2019), Porshnev (26th, 2020);
- women:
Yurlova-Perkht (2nd, 2019 and 6th, 2020), Pavlova (18th, 2019).
In the case of mass starts, you immediately need to make a reservation, so far not a single athlete of the Russian national team can be sure that he will take part in them.
Even Alexander Loginov is not among the 15 best biathletes according to the overall World Cup, who are guaranteed to participate in the world championship race.
The remaining 15 participants will be selected based on the results of individual races.
If the selection was as simple as at the World Cup, then Loginov and Mironova could compete in the race from the general start and compete for a medal.
Both of them showed a very decent speed at a distance during the season, but they always missed medals due to poor shooting.
Eliseev's sixth place in Oberhof stands apart - neither before nor after he was as close to medals as then.
Only one mistake separated him from the podium and even victory.
Already at the next stage, Eliseev returned to the role of an extra, showing the worst move - he lost 2.5 minutes to the Norwegian Johannes Dale.
The performance in Oberhof was more an exception than a rule that could be repeated in Pokljuka.