Silver finish: how the Russian men's biathlon team took second place in the relay at the KM stage in Nove Mesto

Mood for medals

The Biathlon World Cup in Nove Mesto, the first since the end of the planetary championship, started with two relay races - the last in the current season.

On the eve of the medals were distributed by women, and on Friday the men went into battle.

Unfortunately, the first day of competition did not bring positive emotions to the Russian fans.

Ulyana Kaisheva, Irina Kazakevich, Larisa Kuklina and Svetlana Mironova took only eighth place.

However, great hopes were pinned on the men's team.

Firstly, they showed more stable results during the entire season, and secondly, it was in the relay that they won the only World Cup medal for the Russian national team - bronze.

The coaching staff of the “victorious” team did not change as expected.

Karim Khalili, Matvey Eliseev, Alexander Loginov and Eduard Latypov were to fight for the awards.

Unlike women, there were no experiments in the stage arrangement.

These biathletes had to run in the order in which they are listed above.

Additional intrigue was added by the struggle of Russia with Sweden and France for the second place in the KM relay standings.

On the eve of the last race in this form, the domestic team was fourth, five points behind the Swedes and ten points behind the French, but in case of a successful performance it could bypass them.

But Norway practically guaranteed itself a Small Crystal Globe in advance.

Punishing opponents for mistakes

The race began not in the best way for the Russian national team.

Khalili passed the first circle in his own strength and calmly kept in the group of leaders.

However, already lying down, the young biathlete had problems.

He could not cope with the wind and made three mistakes at once.

It's good that Karim didn't go to the penalty loop.

Nevertheless, he left the first line only 20th with more than half a minute behind the leader.

At the counter, the domestic athlete managed to improve.

This time, he immediately closed all five targets.

But this did not help him get very close to his rivals.

On the contrary, the lag has increased to 50 seconds.

On the last lap, Khalili worked well and passed the baton to Eliseev tenth (+55.1).

The first to do this was the German Eric Lesser.

In the future, the German national team only confidently increased the advantage over rivals.

At first, the Norwegians were still trying to keep behind them, but Johannes Dale's penalty loop on the rack threw them to the ninth line.

As for Eliseev, he worked both firing lines perfectly, but showed not the best speed.

Nevertheless, clean shooting, coupled with the mistakes of rivals who could not cope with the wind one after another, helped the Russian to join the fight for a medal.

He left the stand already in sixth, just five seconds from the third place, which was occupied by the Austrians.

However, the last lap of the native of Zelenograd once again went poorly.

He not only failed to catch up with his opponents, but also dropped to seventh place.

At the same time, Ukrainian Dmitry Pidruchny passed the baton to the third after Benedict Doll and Kenten Fillon Maye.

Loginov at his stage immediately rushed to recoup the gap, and together with Tarja Byo he practically managed to catch up with the group leading in front.

But too high a speed negatively affected the shooting of the world champion.

And the strong wind did not allow shooting accurately.

With two penalties, the leader of the national team once again moved away from the fight for prizes.

However, the rivals on this day themselves gave the Russians a chance.

On the stand on the penalty loop, which was the second, but not the last for the Norwegians in this race, Boe Sr. left.

Loginov was also not perfect, but even having spent three additional patrons, he managed to get close to Austria, which is in third place.

On the last change of the stage, the first place was taken by the Germans with an advantage of almost 40 seconds from the French.

The third were the Austrians, who had been losing to the leader for a minute and 40 seconds.

Norway, Italy, Russia and Slovenia were 13-14 seconds behind. 

It seemed that the fate of the gold and silver medals had already been decided, and Latypov had to fight for the award, first of all, with Johannes Boe himself. 

But on the couch, Emilien Jacquelin made a generous gift to the pursuers.

The three-time world champion closed only one target, spending all the additional cartridges, and went to four penalty circles.

Thus, he excluded his country from the number of contenders for medals, and opened the way for Germany to gold.

It was important for Latypov to take advantage of his opponent's mistakes, and he did it, having worked perfectly, like Johannes.

At a distance, the Russian easily left Harald Lemmerer. 

It became obvious that the Russian national team this time will finish the race with a long-awaited medal.

But the main question was what set of awards the team would receive.

And at the decisive moment, the rivals again made a gift to her.

Boe Jr. ran into trademark problems on the stand and escaped to the penalty loop, the third for the Norwegians.

Latypov, in turn, closed all five targets and left the line with a 17-second advantage over the overall leader of the World Cup.

On the last lap, the Scandinavian did everything to catch up with Edward, but he lacked a little distance.

The Russian men's team finished the relay in Nove Mesto on the second line, losing only to Germany.

The Norwegians, despite three penalties, took bronze and won the Small Crystal Globe.

And the success in the Czech Republic helped the national team to finish in second place in this KM standings.