Late to the start and problems with the rifle: Russian biathletes unsuccessfully sprints at the KM stage in Östersund

Loginov hit the top ten

After the relatively successful performance of the Russians in individual races at the World Cup in Ostersund, in which three domestic biathletes were in the top 10, it seemed that they would be able to add in sprints and compete for the first medals of the new season.

Alas, the hopes of the Russian fans were not destined to come true.

The men performed a little more successfully, but they also turned out to be far from the first three.

The top ten was closed by Alexander Loginov, who had completely failed the shooting the day before and made six mistakes.

And the leader of the national team managed to work on the mistakes: in the sprint race, he did not experience any problems at the lines and closed all the targets.

But it quickly became clear that even with perfect shooting, the world champion was not yet ready to fight the strongest competitors: the victorious Sebastian Samuelsson, who also shot clean, was almost a minute ahead of the Russian at the finish - 53.4 seconds. However, drawing parallels with the Swede is not entirely correct, since on Sunday he was head and shoulders above the rest. Only Emilien Jacquelin showed a similar speed to him, who was thrown into the final fourth place by a mistake on the stand. By the way, the Frenchman even brought Loginova half a minute with him. After the end of the race, Alexander honestly admitted that he was not yet in perfect shape.

“I feel no better than yesterday.

Not yet in my ideal condition, but I am slowly getting there.

Of course, I would like to increase the speed.

Because this is not my speed.

On the last lap it even turned out to “pull” somewhere, but the average speed is still not the same, ”the athlete said on Match TV.

The current owner of the Big Crystal Globe, Johannes Boe, is far from ideal shape.

The day before, he showed the fifth result, and on Sunday he became the third.

Moreover, in the fight for silver, his compatriot Vetle Shosta Christiansen was ahead of him at the last moment.

But the strongest biathlete of the planet in recent years at least did without mistakes, but his main rival last season and the winner of the prostitute Sturla Holm Legrade failed the sprint, barely getting into the points zone.

As for the Russians, Eduard Latypov and Daniil Serokhvostov pleased them again.

The first misfired while lying down, and therefore was placed in the final protocol 11th with more than ten seconds behind Loginov.

But most importantly, at the start of the season, the Russian demonstrates stable performances, not allowing himself to go into obvious recessions.

The debutant of the World Cup coped with his task again.

The day before, he took 15th place, and in the sprint - 23rd.

If it were not for the annoying mistake on the stand, he could well impose a fight on Loginov for a place in the top 10.

One way or another, the appearance of Serokhvostov in the national team still looks completely justified.

He does not allow failures on the firing lines and is not inferior in speed to other domestic biathletes.

At the starting stage, KM Daniel did everything to go to the Olympic Games.

But Said Karimullah Khalili is rolling hard into the season so far.

On Sunday, he did not even hit the points, finishing in 43rd place, although he made only one mistake on the shooting range.

But most of all questions arise about the figures of the experienced Matvey Eliseev and Evgeny Garanichev.

The first still looks absolutely not ready physically, as evidenced by the 78th result in the sprint.

For comparison, he lost a minute and a half to Serokhvostov with an equal number of misses.

The medalist of the Sochi Olympics even became 113th with almost four minutes behind Samuelsson (with three misses).

However, he lost about 30 seconds due to being late for the start: the athlete forgot the sticks in the wax cabin.

But this was not the reason for the failure, because Garanichev at every kilometer managed to lose to the leaders for several tens of seconds.

After such a performance, it is possible that one of the biathletes who failed the starting stage of the KM biathlon will be replaced by Russians who show themselves at the IBU Cup.

So, at the competition in Idre, Vasily Tomshin won the pursuit, and Alexander Povarnitsyn took bronze.

Problems of Russian women with the move

The women's sprint was even worse for the Russian national team.

If on the eve Ulyana Nigmatullina and Kristina Reztsova pleasantly surprised the fans, not just getting into the top 10, but almost joining the fight for medals, then in the sprint there was no talk of such accomplishments.

The first of the domestic biathletes to enter the race was Nigmatullina.

Ulyana worked perfectly on both firing lines, but did not cope with the move.

It was felt that the athlete had not fully recovered after a difficult individual.

As a result - only 17th place in clean shooting, more than a minute behind the winner.

Among women, as well as among men, the first place was taken by the representative of Sweden - Hannah Eberg.

She was 11.3 seconds ahead of Anais Chevalier and 15.4 seconds ahead of Martha Røiseland.

The Norwegian could well have won the race, if not for the offensive misfire on the rack.

The Belarusian sportswomen delighted the fans.

Dinara Alimbekova again became the fourth, and the medalist of the World Cup 2021 Anna Sola was located right behind her.

The Russians didn’t show off their moves or shooting.

Reztsova became the fastest among her compatriots, but two penalties in the second turn pushed her out of the top 30.

Valeria Vasnetsova, with one blot on the bench, is 26th.

Larisa Kuklina with two penalties - outside the points zone.

Unfortunately, women also got into trouble.

Once the leader of the national team Svetlana Mironova did not close three targets and showed 94th result with more than three minutes behind Eberg Sr.

As it turned out later, the failure was caused by problems with the rifle.

“I don’t know what happened, perhaps because of the cold this ... I tried to shoot from one clip three times, pulled it out, inserted another.

She shot.

I came to the "rack", inserted a new clip, fired one shot, and the rifle did not fire either.

I pull the trigger - there is a failure.

I inserted another clip, fired two shots and then finished shooting from the special stages.

I lost a lot of time at the borders.

And this is the result, ”the athlete explained.

Irina Kazakevich showed the worst shooting in the team.

The day before, she made ten misfires, and on Sunday - four and settled in the final protocol on the 79th line.

While she, along with Garanichev and Eliseev, has the greatest chances of dropping out of the Russian national team.