Babikov's golden double

Russian biathlete Anton Babikov, after a not very successful starting stage of the IBU Cup in Idra, Sweden, fully rehabilitated himself in the Norwegian Shushen, winning two out of three races.

The first victory in the new season - in the sprint race for 10 kilometers - was brought to Ufa by clean shooting at both firing lines, although he was slightly inferior to his rivals with his feet. After lying down, the 2017 world champion in the relay showed the fourth result, behind the leader, Norwegian Howard Bougetweit, by 8.6 seconds. In the course of the distance, the gap between them only increased, but on the second shooting, none of the top three avoided mistakes.

Babikov, having shot accurately, went to the distance as the leader with an advantage of seven seconds.

However, Bougetweit, even with a penalty loop, confidently held the second place and could push to the finish line.

But the biggest danger for Babikov was another Norwegian Philip Fjeld Andersen, who won the super sprint the day before.

He made one mistake while lying down, but ran so fast that he almost surpassed the result of the Ufa athlete - only 0.9 seconds decided the fate of the victory!

Another Russian Ilyaz Mukhamedzyanov took 8th place with three penalties, and Evgeny Garanichev, who shot both lines without a miss, showed a depressing 11th result, losing to the winner 1: 02.2.

After the race, Babikov emphasized that clean shooting was his goal at this stage.

“In previous races I was not in the best condition, I could not find my shooting and today I focused on it.

I shot very slowly both in the standing position and on the prone, but most importantly, I shot to zero.

And then I did a good job on the track, thanks to my team for helping at every part of the distance, ”the press service of the IBU quotes the domestic biathlete.

In the race from the general start, Babikov proved that his victory in the sprint was not accidental.

At the first shooting range, the Ufa player quickly closed all targets and left the stadium with a five-second advantage.

In the second shooting, he missed once, but thanks to the inaccuracy of the pursuers and his own speed, he managed to maintain the leading position - and did not concede it to the very finish, never missing again.

“Today I was much more tired and realized that it would be more difficult, that I needed to focus on shooting.

If you make a mistake at the first firing lines, then it is too difficult on the track.

I was just trying to save energy, ”the Russian commented on his performance.

Personal coach of Babikov Viktor Nikitin noted that the athlete is progressing noticeably and this shows the work of the senior coach of the Russian national team, Yuri Kaminsky.

“I am glad that Anton finally has a move.

You know what the problems were.

I can only note that he and Kaminsky are on the right track.

The preparation for the season has completely changed, so Anton's results are the fruits of Kaminsky, well, who else?

We changed the preparation, everything became different.

With Anton, pah-pah, everything is fine, healthy, "- quotes Nikitin's words" Match TV ".

After two victories in Shushen, Babikov moved up to sixth place in the IBU Cup overall standings, gaining 220 points.

Breakthrough former junior

Anastasia Shevchenko, a 22-year-old native of Omsk, also shone brightly in Shushen, who climbed to the podium after all three races.

At the same time, the two-time world champion among juniors showed that she is perfectly ready functionally, although she still needs to work on shooting.

In the super sprint, Shevchenko was among the leaders for a long time, and even after a miss at the third shooting range, she was the first to run the distance.

However, the penalty loop after the final standing shooting knocked Anastasia out of a rut, and in the end she finished only third.

But the next day, the domestic biathlete fully rehabilitated herself for an offensive defeat, taking gold in the classic sprint. She noticeably lost the first half of the distance to the leading Norwegian Caroline Erdal. Both athletes did without penalties, but after the second shooting, the Russian woman was 7.9 seconds behind her opponent. And it was here that Shevchenko fully showed her sprint qualities, not only having won back the significant advantage of the Scandinavian, but also ahead of her by 1.2 seconds. Of course, a big role in this victory was played by the fact that the Russian woman started after Erdal and could correct her actions on the track, knowing the result of her opponent.

“I am very happy that I won today.

I tried to shoot cleanly, and I am very pleased to see two zeros!

This is a difficult track, and the more pleasant the victory is!

Right before the last lap I was informed that I was lagging behind the leader, and thanks to this information I was able to win, ”Shevchenko said after the finish.

In the final race of the stage - the mass start - the recent junior also had a high chance of winning.

Having passed three firing lines "to zero", Anastasia came to the last shooting side-by-side with Ragnhild Femsteinevik.

Both missed once, but the Norwegian shot faster, and flew through the penalty loop in one breath - and eventually left the stadium 7.9 seconds earlier than the Russian.

Unfortunately, this time Shevchenko did not find the strength to win back a serious gap, and she was content with silver.

However, this did not prevent her from leading the overall IBU Cup ranking with 260 points.