Russians without medals and the aggravation of the struggle for leadership: how the pursuits at the KM biathlon stage in Ostersund ended

Repetition of the best result of Kaisheva

On the second day of the World Cup stage in Ostersund, biathletes competed for medals in the pursuit races.

On the eve of the sprint, athletes had to fight not only with rivals on the track, but also with difficult weather conditions.

This time there was no precipitation, but the strong wind turned the competition into a lottery.

Only those who, in spite of the elements, managed to make the least number of mistakes and competently spread their forces at a distance, could come out of such a situation as winners.

After the second firing line, thanks to clean shooting, Martha Olsby Røyseland got the lead.

And despite the fact that she made two mistakes on both stands, the speed provided her with a comfortable advantage, which sometimes reached a minute and made it possible to enter the penalty loops.

The Norwegian did not allow her rivals to come close and won gold.

Sprint winner Tiril Eckhoff after the start faded into the background, but in the first stand did not allow a single mistake and came close to the Frenchwoman Julia Simon.

By the last shooting, the fight for a place in the top three was between several biathletes, but the season leader made one mistake and left the line for the second.

At the finish line, she lost 29.3 seconds to her compatriot.

Third place went to the bronze medalist of the World Championship, Belarusian Anna Sole.

Marte Olsbu Roeiseland wins the final pursuit of the season in windy conditions!

👏

🥇🇳🇴 Marte Olsbu Roeiseland @NSSF_Biathlon

🥈🇳🇴 @ TirilEckhoff @ NSSF_Biathlon

🥉🇧🇾 Hanna Sola @bybiathlonhttps: //t.co/bk5aBBso9Q |

# ost21pic.twitter.com / QWdbGroPwU

- IBU World Cup (@IBU_WC) March 20, 2021

The best among the Russians was Ulyana Kaisheva, who took eighth place and lost 2 minutes 11 seconds to Reiseland.

Throughout the race, she looked competitive against her rivals.

And although two misses at the final stage deprived her of her chances to fight for medals, the best speed on the last loop suggests that even at the end of the season, the biathlete is able to show high results.

An impressive breakthrough was made by Larisa Kuklina, just like Kaisheva, who fought to the last to get into the flower ceremony.

She was one of the few to shoot clean on the first prone, which allowed her to move up from 29th to 10th.

This was followed by one penalty in the second shooting range and three in the first stance.

After the final shooting, the Russian woman left sixth, but she clearly did not have enough strength for the last lap, and she let several rivals go ahead, including her compatriot.

As a result, Kuklina closed the top ten, and her gap from the first place was 2 minutes 13 seconds.

From the very first line, the race did not work out for Svetlana Mironova.

She started 24th, but on a prone made four misses and rolled back to the last places, from where it was extremely difficult to get out even in ideal weather conditions.

But, unfortunately, among the Russians there were those who looked even worse on the track.

During the second round, Mironova was able to bypass Evgenia Pavlova, who made half the number of misses on the first shooting range.

As a result, Svetlana came to the finish line only 34th, losing to Reyseland 3 minutes 39 seconds.

The rest of the Russians were completely outside the top 40.

Debutants of the national team Anastasia Shevchenko and Anastasia Goreeva finished 47th and 49th respectively.

Tatyana Akimova took 53rd place, Pavlova - 55th.

It is worth noting that Kaisheva repeated her best result in personal races this season.

“It was very interesting, but lately all the races are interesting.

I ask the coaches not to prompt anything in order to work at their own pace.

How did you work at the turn in such a wind?

I understood that I wasn’t running very fast, so I fired for a long time.

It's a miracle that we managed to get in at all.

At the third stage there was a particularly strong impulse, I think it was the hardest shooting, "Kaisheva said on Match TV.

In the Sunday mass start, the Russian women's team will be represented by Mironova and Kaisheva, who occupy 19th and 21st places in the overall standings, respectively.

Unexpected denouement

The main intrigue of the men's pursuit was the confrontation between Johannes Boe and Sturla Kholm Legrade, who continue to fight for the "Big Crystal Globe".

Before the start, the gap between them was only 15 points in favor of the more experienced Norwegian.

At the start, the rivals settled down one after another - in sixth and seventh places, and approached the first firing line together.

But here Legrade flinched and made one mistake, while Boe shot cleanly and went third behind Sebastian Samuelsson and sprint winner Lucas Hofer.

After the second lie down, the Italian regained the lead, and Bo moved up to the second line.

Before the third firing line, the wind that had died down before the start of the men's race increased again, as a result of which Hofer was unable to cope with the shooting.

But the weather conditions did not prevent the Norwegian, who provided himself with a comfortable advantage.

However, at the final stand, something happened that could not have been expected.

It is not known whether Johannes was let down by a gust of wind or the excitement affected, but he made three mistakes and went to the penalty loops.

At the same time, Legrade dealt with his nerves and left the firing line first.

Hofer and Boe, who made one mistake, set off in pursuit of the young Norwegian, whose lead was 17 seconds, but they never managed to get close to him.

Legrade celebrated the victory, his colleague in the national team climbed to second place, the Italian closed the top three.

Sturla Holm Laegreid triumphs in the final Men Pursuit of the Season in Oestersund 💪

🥇🇳🇴 Sturla Holm Laegreid @NSSF_Biathlon

🥈🇳🇴 Johannes Thingnes Boe @NSSF_Biathlon

🥉🇮🇹 @ hoferluki @ Fisiofficialhttps: //t.co/bk5 |

# ost21pic.twitter.com / ALeE1IjO0I

- IBU World Cup (@IBU_WC) March 20, 2021

At the moment, Boe's advantage in the overall standings is only four points, which means that the fate of the Big Crystal Globe will directly depend on the results of the mass start.

As for the Russians, most of all hopes were pinned on Evgeny Garanichev, who started from 11th place.

Indeed, at the first shooting range, he did not allow a single miss and rose to sixth place, just over a minute behind the leader.

On the second bench, he again closed all the targets and managed to get even closer to the first three.

However, Evgenia let the stand down, on the third shooting he made one mistake, and the fourth - two.

At the finish, the Russian was 12th, and his gap from Legrade was 1 minute 45 seconds.

However, the points earned allowed him to rise in the overall standings and get into the mass start.

For the rest of the Russians, the graze also did not work.

Eduard Latypov supported Garanichev's impulse at the start and went eighth from the first bench.

But then he made five penalties and dropped to 18th place.

Almost nothing worked out for Alexander Loginov.

He managed to improve his result relative to the sprint and moved up from 26th to 15th place, but four penalties prevented him from fighting for a higher result.

The move of Matvey Eliseev disappointed, who also lost 4 minutes 12 seconds to the leader with four uncovered targets and remained on the 45th line.

It's worth noting that all four Russians will have the opportunity to end the season on a more positive note in Sunday's mass start.