Friday was simply bound to become Alexander Loginov's day.
Firstly, it would be just beautiful: to defend the title of the best sprinter in the world on the birthday of his personal trainer - Alexander Kasperovich.
Secondly, on the eve of the championship, Kasperovich himself noted that the track in Pokljuka seemed to be specially designed for his student: “Sasha loves difficult tracks.
I even wrote to him: "The track is absolutely for you."
Thirdly, the entire Russian team spent the final stage in full accordance with how it was planned to do it - without any interference and force majeure.
A plus could be recorded and performance in the mixed relay.
From the point of view of quality, it turned out to be not the most successful for Loginov, but it provided an excellent opportunity to relieve the degree of psychological stress, to feel the track and rivals, and at the same time himself.
There was little to do: to implement the minimum sprint program.
That is, to flawlessly go through both lines in order to guarantee yourself a chance to fight for victory.
If you're lucky.
Still, a sprint, where the speeds of running and shooting are becoming more and more fantastic every year, always requires a certain amount of luck.
Even in the form of a start number: no matter how cool those who run ahead work, there is always a risk that their result will be surpassed by those who start later.
With the penultimate shot in the very first shooting Loginov shattered a beautiful script and went to the penalty loop.
A couple of minutes later Matvey Eliseev, who started fourth in the sprint, will repeat flawless shooting at the second line, go to the finish line with zero and make sadly recall the words of the four-time world champion Valery Medvedtsev: “In my understanding, the first stage should have been run not by Alexander Loginov, but Matvey Eliseev.
There are no starters better than Matvey in the Russian national team at all ... "
Alas, Matvey got up at the finish line.
In other words, he did everything so as not to regret too much about his absence in the relay.
Loginov, after the first shooting, screwed up the second.
An additional stress was the problems that the athlete had with the weapon, although in fact it was no longer of interest to anyone, except perhaps the Russian coaches and Alexander himself.
“History repeats itself twice.
First - in the form of a tragedy, the second time - in the form of a farce ”, - the famous quote of the German philosopher Georg Hegel is quite applicable to the situation with Loginov and his relations with the media.
A year ago, at the World Championships in Antholz, against the backdrop of endless attacks from rivals and a wildly nervous situation in general, Alexander's reluctance to contact journalists was understandable.
Although, in the end, I still had to communicate - to give explanations after the Italian police raided the location of the Russian biathletes with a search.
The current vow of silence (which began not in Pokljuka, but much earlier) was not clear in principle.
This happens to young and not too experienced athletes: when the stress of the start becomes unbearable, you want to detach yourself from everything, and above all from those who ask questions.
Three-time Olympic swimming champion Yevgeny Sadovy, before his first and only Games in Barcelona, even cut his luxurious hair to zero, explaining: “You see, when a swimmer shaves his head, he kind of emphasizes that he renounces everything for a single purpose.”
We can say that the position of the leader of the team (and, moreover, the only one) obliges to a lot, and to communicate with the press as well, but forcing this or that athlete to do this is a thankless and senseless task.
Even the head coach of the Russian national team Valery Polkhovsky was forced to speak about this in Pokljuka, giving an explanation for Loginov's behavior.
Like, a person does not want to speak - well, his right ...
From the point of view of sports, the point here is generally different.
Making the decision to reduce communication with the press to zero, an athlete, unwittingly, creates a very powerful stress factor for himself.
Especially successful in this are those who are naturally emotionally vulnerable and are accustomed to keeping their own experiences deep within themselves.
This is about how to believe in the destructive magic of black cats or women with empty buckets met: I saw a journalist - I bristled internally, I reminded myself that I shouldn't communicate with anyone, that it is necessary to bypass the moral obstacle, and in general it is better not to get caught by the press on eyes.
All these thoughts lead to the fact that at the most crucial moment of the season, instead of mobilization, the athlete has a powerful loss of energy - as, in fact, from any stress.
And now this is absolutely unprofessional, and not at all the fact whether a person stops in a mixed zone or not.
Could the psychological discomfort unsettle the world champion and become exactly that trifle that prevented him from showing a more worthy result?
Well, why not?
What actually happened in the sprint race with Loginov, he may tell later.
Well, in Pokljuka after two successively littered races, the journalists had no time for him at all - with such results over the "dead" Russian, one could only be ironic.
As a plus for the men's Russian sprint, the only fact could be written: the first two laps of the distance covered by Eduard Latypov at the head of the race, and the illusion he created that with perfect shooting he could fight for the podium, or even win.
A slip in the standing position and the finishing lap with Latypov's 34th time "with his feet" shattered this illusion, but the overall tenth result of the Russian athlete, 33.3 behind the leader, means a great chance in the pursuit race.
Unlike the rest of the Russian four, which started in the sprint on Friday.