"Karim loves relay races and copes with them": Sorin about Khalili's debut at the World Cup, valuable advice and conversation with Kaminsky

In early January, when skiers competed at the Tour de Ski, and biathlete Karim Khalili was preparing to start in the second echelon of Russian athletes at the IBU Cup and European Championships, coach Yegor Sorin recalled how a year earlier he refused to call his ward the new Anton Shipulin.

“I was not so optimistic.

If we analyze the results of the last season, then Karim was not the fastest even among the athletes of the second composition.

I qualified for the World Cup only due to stability.

And still there were no prerequisites for the fact that this season he will become a leader.

Although Khalili started pre-season training earlier than others and trained very hard and hard.

In biathlon, even the most talented athletes need time to start demonstrating consistently high results, ”the specialist emphasized.

Immediately after Khalili finished sixth in the individual race of the World Championship, without missing a single shot and created, perhaps, the loudest sensation, I typed Sorina again - to congratulate.

- Karim and I were constantly in touch all this time, - the coach began.

I thought that it would be wrong to delegate the athlete to the head coach on the eve of the most important start, since he has been working under my leadership all this year.

To be honest, I did not expect that Khalili would be put on the individual race after he did not even qualify for the pursuit in the sprint, so I told him to just skate for the next two days without any tasks to relieve his head.

After that we agreed to call him and Yuri Kaminsky on Monday and make a decision.

- And there were options?

- I wanted to ask Yuri Mikhailovich to send Karim to the IBU Cup in Slovakia, since the championship is over for him, but Kaminsky asked him not to rush.

He said that a place was vacated in the composition for the race, since Eduard Latypov will not start in it, and he plans to give this place to Karim.

- Do you have an explanation for the failure of the ward in the sprint?

- We have not yet carried out a detailed analysis, but if offhand, I think, the pressure of the World Cup and all the attention, not always positive, that fell on the Russian team affected.

It seems that Karim started calmly, but made two mistakes in shooting.

This, of course, knocked down.

Another factor that could play a negative role is a later arrival in Pokljuka.

The sprint fell on the 12th day, when the chances of getting into the mountains for acclimatization are quite high.

Although I myself am not too inclined to this version.

In this case, there would be a more noticeable drop in speed.

But pressure from the outside can have a negative effect.

The other day I read an interview with Wolfgang Pichler, where he very accurately and timely noticed that the result loves silence.

- Skiers are not criticized to that extent?

- Biathlon is much more popular in this regard.

It is clear that everyone is waiting for the result, but when I read all kinds of experts, including those who once ran themselves, to be honest, I am disappointed in the idols of my own youth.

You cannot draw premature conclusions and evaluate certain decisions of the coaching staff without knowing the nuances of preparation.

It's just unprofessional.

But in biathlon this happens from year to year, regardless of who leads the team.

- Did your athlete complain about the height?

In the sense that the recovery is not going fast enough?

- No, he's accustomed to the mountains.

All the best starts, starting from the junior age, were in the mountains.

And at the IBU Cup last year, when Karim first entered the prizes, it also happened at a height.

The only factor that worried me a little was the number of starts.

In January, Karim ran nine races in 18 days, and I think his body was not yet ready for such a busy schedule.

But the coaches could not decide whether to send Khalili to the World Cup or not.

So I had to start again and again.

And every start is kind of decisive.

Therefore, when he arrived in Pokljuka, Karim was, I think, in a somewhat disassembled state and my main task was to restore it corny.

First of all, the central nervous system.

It worked out, but not for the first start, unfortunately.

- What did you say to Khalili, setting him up for the individual race?

- He advised me to forget that this is the World Championship and imagine that this is the race of Alexander Legkov, which you can run for your own pleasure, without thinking about the result at all.

- Do you now expect that Karim will be included in the men's relay?

- We talked about this with Kaminsky.

What if in the individual race one of the more experienced guys does not run very well, and Khalili, on the contrary, shows himself, substitutions are possible.

I think Karim deserves it.

He shot to zero, just like it was in the individual race at the European Championship, showed a good move for himself, on the same legs with Evgeny Garanichev, and most importantly, Khalili loves relay races and usually copes with them.

In other words, at the level at which he performed, he established himself as a good and proven relay fighter.

- At what stage would you advise to put it?

- For the first. It is possible for the last one, but we have Latypov there, so it would be preferable to start the relay. We have to really assess the situation: no matter how good Khalili looks now in comparison with other guys, he has not yet reached the top level, so the first stage, where there are no prohibitive speeds, will suit him the most.