On the podium with a penalty loop: Russian biathletes won bronze in the relay at the World Cup in Ostersund

Long-awaited reward 

Recently, Russian biathletes rarely delight the country with medals.

The award in the men's relay in Östersund was an enjoyable and long awaited event.

And before the start of the race, few people assumed that the domestic four would climb so high.

Experienced Matvey Eliseev and Evgeny Garanichev did not prepare well for the season and went to the IBU Cup.

In their absence, there was no doubt only about getting into the composition of Alexander Loginov and Eduard Latypov.

With a high degree of probability, they should have been accompanied by Said Karimulla Khalili, who fled this discipline at least several times.

But around the last place there were serious disputes.

22-year-old Daniil Serokhvostov pleasantly surprised at the first stage of the CM, but then failed in the sprint.

Debutant Vasily Tomshin and Aleksandr Povarnitsyn, who had only a few starts at the Planet Cup, performed a little better, but they seemed completely unfired.

As a result, the coaching staff made a choice in favor of Serokhvostov and got to the point.

Another young athlete, Khalili, did not disappoint either.

He immediately made his way to the group of leaders, and worked on the bench without failures.

Unfortunately, the biathlete was still let down by the nerves at the stand.

He did not close three targets, but finished them off with additional rounds and did without penalty loops, and the amazing speed allowed Karim to rise from seventh to fourth.

The Russian worked so actively at a distance, trying to close the gap that he showed the second move at his stage.

“Standing, it was impossible to make so many mistakes. Three additional patrons are not permissible. As for the move, the second round came out not the best, it was possible to run faster. At the counter, the jitters did not cover. The misses turned out to be very close. I was even surprised when the targets did not close. I tried to work with additional patrons as quickly as possible, the thought flew past that the penalty loop would obviously be superfluous, ”he said live on Match TV.

Then the fans with bated breath began to follow Serokhvostov. However, the young debutant during the relay behaved as if it was not the first time that he defended the honor of the country in the KM. Like his teammate, he passed the knee and took the team to the first place. Alas, at the second line, Daniel also wavered. He sent the first three targets to the target, but when Tarjei Bo stood on the next mat, he wavered. Fortunately, there were two misses. And the young biathlete passed the baton to Alexander Loginov third, 19.7 seconds behind Norway and 15.7 seconds behind Ukraine. Serokhvostov not only coped with the nerves, but also demonstrated the best speed. At the same time, he himself assessed his performance modestly.

“On a ten-point scale, seven.

The last lap was upsetting, it was hard.

I could not give my best.

Best move?

It was just that everyone walked the first lap, ”the athlete complained.

It was no less alarming for Loginov, who in the team does not always justify the status of a leader.

However, on Saturday, the world champion held one of the best relay races of his career.

He became the only member of the domestic four who did not make a single mistake.

And the excellent move and misfires of Bogdan Tsymbal allowed him to rise to the second line with more than half a minute advantage over France and 20 seconds behind Norway.

“There was a slight gusty wind at the sighting.

Therefore, everyone was tuned in to the fact that there would be problems at the borders.

The wind blew on the counter, even passed one dimension, but everything ended normally.

I just walked at my own pace - now there is nothing to surprise anyone with, ”Loginov said after the race.

It was obvious that the Russian national team was obliged to take the medal.

But the main question was whether Latypov would be able to impose the fight on Vetle Shost on Christiansen in the fight for the first place.

The Norwegian gave the pursuer a chance.

While lying down, he did not close one target.

Edward responded in kind, but reduced the gap to 15.9 seconds.

The denouement came on the counter, where the rivals came with almost one foot.

The Scandinavian got nervous and started to miss.

Here it is, the opportunity to take gold!

Alas, the Russian also failed to cope with his nerves.

In addition, Kenten Fillon Maillet approached the line.

As a result, the Norwegian went to victory with two misfires.

And Latypov was unable to close three targets with additional cartridges and fled to the penalty loop, letting the Frenchman go ahead.

Fortunately, it was almost impossible to remove Edward from the third line.

So, the Russian team missed a good chance to finish first.

However, the young participants showed themselves excellently, and Serokhvostov made a significant claim to be included in the Olympic relay.

Also, all of Yuri Kaminsky's wards, without exception, demonstrated an excellent move.

And Loginov finally got over his nerves and confirmed his title of leader.

Another failure

Also on Saturday, the women's pursuit race took place. In it, it was almost impossible for Russian women to count on medals, since they showed weak results in the sprint. For comparison, Svetlana Mironova became the best of the national team, completing the top twenty. Nevertheless, last season, domestic biathletes have repeatedly demonstrated the ability to get out of the depths of the protocol in pursuit and win back two dozen positions.

However, this is only possible with perfect shooting. Unfortunately, in Östersund, only Ulyana Nigmatullina, traditionally reliable in this component, did not experience any problems at the borders. She did not close only one target out of 20. But the move of the native of Udmurtia still leaves much to be desired, because despite the almost perfect shooting, the athlete was above 17th place with a lag of one minute and 43.4 seconds from the winner. As for sheer speed, Ulyana is only in 25th position.

But in the first half of the race, Mironova was pleasantly surprised. She not only moved rapidly along the distance, but also worked perfectly on the lines. Svetlana passed two lying places without fail and joined the fight for getting into the top ten. The fans even got the chance to dream about the podium. Alas, on the counter everything went back to normal. A native of the Tomsk region made two misfires and dropped in the final protocol to 24th place.

The rest of the Russians did not please with either the move or the shooting.

Kristina Reztsova, who showed the best result in her career as an individual at the starting stage of the current KM season, did not close five targets at once and took 31st place (+ 2: 55.2), although she again turned out to be the fastest in the team.

Larisa Kuklina - the same five, and hardly got into the cup points, 3.5 minutes behind the winner.

It remains to be stated: an experienced athlete is very slowly gaining shape and has not yet coped with the role of the leader of the national team.

But the work of Irina Kazakevich should be noted rather with a plus sign, because four misfires in the pursuit for her is an excellent indicator.

For comparison, in the mentioned prostitute at the previous stage, she admitted ten.

After that, the young biathlete managed to stabilize the results and even get into the top 40 for the first time, having settled down on the 32nd line.

Despite the fact that the Russians were as far as possible from medals that day, the fight in the finish line turned out to be incredibly interesting.

Marthe Røiseland left the last frontier in one leg with Anais Chevalier and Lisa Teresa Hauser.

Anais Bescon was six seconds behind them.

As a result, the fast Norwegian woman, as expected, managed to break away from her pursuers and win gold.

The French women, in the battle for the awards, left out of work the representative of Austria, which, despite this, retained the leadership in the overall standings of the CM.

Separately, it should be noted Bescon.

She not only managed to overtake the group of leaders, but also bypassed her compatriot in alignment and became the owner of a silver award.