Unlike men, Russian biathletes traditionally started the season in a bad way.
If Alexander Loginov and Eduard Latypov have more than once been able to get on the podium in personal races, then the girls are not even talking about this.
In addition, most of Mikhail Shashilov's wards, with the exception of Christina Reztsova and Irina Kazakevich, have serious problems with the move.
And the last two, although relatively fast, cannot boast of a clean job at the frontiers.
However, the hope for the fans was given in many ways by the unexpected silver award in the relay on Saturday.
She demonstrated that domestic athletes are not at all so hopeless and, in the absence of misses, are able to claim high places.
After such success, they were preparing for the Sunday pursuit in excellent spirits.
However, it was almost unrealistic to claim the awards in the pursuit, because the Russians started from the depths.
Kazakevich - from the 19th position and a minute and 40 seconds behind, Reztsova - from the 22nd, Ulyana Nigmatullina - from the 30th, Svetlana Mironova - from the 38th.
The hardest hit was Valeria Vasnetsova, who went into the battle 45th with a gap of two minutes and 22 seconds from Anna Sola.
In turn, the Belarusian, who won a sensational victory in the sprint with a lead of 46 seconds from the nearest pursuer, had an excellent opportunity to issue a “golden double” in Hochfilzen.
Her compatriot Dinara Alimbekova, who missed the baton due to poor health, also had all the chances to compete for medals.
The first line made the leader's advantage even more tangible, because a whole group of pursuers failed while lying down, while she worked exactly. Three misses were made by Justine Breza-Boucher, two by Hannah Oeberg, and Lisa Vitozzi - four at all. Reztsova coped much more confidently: she moved from 22nd to ninth place with zero. It was impossible to say the same about other Russian women. Kazakevich, Nigmatullin and Mironov were misfired, Vasnetsov - two.
Christina, in addition, once again demonstrated a fantastic move.
On the second lap, she not only did not lag behind her opponents, but rose to the fourth line.
Apparently, a native of Moscow came to the shooting range with too high a pulse.
The race literally swept over her - two uncovered targets and a fall in the middle of the second ten.
But there was a real chance to join the fight with Marthe Olsbu Røyseland and Alimbekova for getting into the top three.
Sola continued to lead confidently, shooting perfectly on the prone.
However, Anna had problems at the counters.
She made two misses at once and allowed her rivals to get closer.
Now Alimbekova and Reyseland were less than 40 seconds behind her.
Reztsova also managed to get closer, who corrected herself by knocking out “zero”, and was immediately in ninth place.
11th was Kazakevich, who made only one mistake.
Everything was decided on the last frontier, where Sola still came with a solid advantage.
But the misfire allowed Reiseland to get close to the sprint winner - 11.3 seconds remained between them.
Alimbekova didn’t close one target either, who, the only one in the pursuit, was worth bronze.
Elvira Eberg bypassed her without any problems, having played 14 positions.
Unfortunately, the Russians at the final stand also did not go without misfires.
Reztsova missed two targets and missed the opportunity to hit the “flowers”.
Kazakevich - one, but the mistakes of her rivals even allowed her to rise to the top 8.
And the fate of the gold award was decided on the last lap. The Belarusian woman simply did not have the strength for him. Reyseland, as if feeling a second wind, effortlessly caught up with her, and then walked around before reaching the finish line, carefully taking an advantageous position in the alignment. The rival gave up fighting and was forced to be content with silver. The victory allowed the Norwegian to strengthen her leadership in the overall KM standings, where Sola and Alimbekova are her main pursuers.
Domestic biathletes were also pleased, considering how disadvantageous their starting positions were. The best of ours was Kazakevich, who took ninth place. This is the highest result of her career in the KM stages in individual races. 12th is located Reztsova, which only four misses prevented from joining the fight for the awards. And most importantly, both girls showed brilliant speed. Christina has the seventh move, Irina has the 12th.
The rest were a little more modest, but they all managed to score cup points.
Nigamatullina finished the pursuit in 17th place, Vasnetsova in 28th, and Mironova in 34th.
In general, Hochfilzen, if we take women into account, left a rather favorable impression.
Its results indicate that not only men, but also girls are able to compete for awards.
And the speed of Reztsova and Kazakevich inspires additional optimism.
Especially happy for the latter, because she failed the starting stage in Östersund and was close to being sent to the IBU Cup.
However, the coaching staff gave the athlete a second chance, and she took advantage of it.