The World Cup stage in Annecy continued on Friday with a men's sprint race. Last time this discipline almost brought the Russian team the first personal medal of the season. Alexander Loginov did not have enough to win bronze in Hochfilzen, and Eduard Latypov, in the absence of misses, could claim victory. On the eve of the girls, almost all of the roster were in the top 25, and something more could be expected from the men.
Latypov was the first Russian to conquer the French track.
It was possible to assess his prospects against the background of Johannes Boe, who started shortly after the 27-year-old rival.
The Norwegian looks unconvincing this season, but Annecy has long been considered his lucky place.
Fans even call the village where the stadium is located, not Le Grand-Bornand, but "Le Grand-Bornand" in honor of the Scandinavian biathlete's three winning doubles.
Latypov was on the bench earlier and closed all the targets.
Beo Jr. also hit five times and overtook the Russian by 3.6 seconds.
Both ran very well when compared to the winner of the two home sprints Sebastian Samuelsson of Sweden.
Even if the new owner of the yellow jersey did not miss the first line, he would still lose to the Russian and the Norwegian.
In the dispute between Latypov and Be, no one intervened until they ran the next circle and returned to the firing line.
At the second shooting, the Russian gave reason to worry - he shot very hard, and before the last attempt he took a long pause.
Usually, such puffs are very disorienting, and a miss is inevitable.
But Latypov still managed and avoided the penalty loop.
Byo, on the other hand, worked out the stance so dashingly that he increased his advantage to 11.7 seconds.
At the same time, in comparison with the shooting, the Norwegian's run left much to be desired.
In the course of the last lap, he for some time increased his advantage over Latypov, but then he almost got up in the middle of the track.
At the finish line, the two athletes were separated by only 7.2 seconds - if Latypov had shot faster and could be guided by the Norwegian, he would have had every chance of surpassing the 12-time world champion.
For a long time, no one threatened the leadership of the two athletes.
Hochfilzen sprint winner Johannes Kühn of Germany was their closest pursuer, but he was badly let down by an unreliable stance.
There was no threat from the French - Quentin Fillon Maillet did not show high speed, and Emilien Jacquelin made one mistake at each turn.
Loginov was the next to intervene in the struggle.
After lying down, he was fifth, about 11 seconds behind Latypov.
By the second shooting, he was slightly behind, but already confidently took fourth place.
With Kyun still in front, hitting the podium was real.
But the last shot from the Russian was unsuccessful, and he had to forget about the medal - there were too many of those in this race who shot perfectly.
Vasily Tomshin and Karim Khalili had one penalty each while lying down.
But if usually inexperienced Russians give up after such a start, then these two did not give up the fight.
Khalili was especially impressed - he ran incredibly fast in the second lap and backed up his spurt with clean shooting.
At the finish line, he even snatched one second from Loginov.
Tomshin ran slower, but did not sink deeply and claimed to be in the second ten.
Be and Latypova had already been in the lead for a long time, but it was too early for them to accept congratulations on their first victory and first medal of the season.
Norwegians Sturla Legrade and Philip Andersen seriously claimed their position.
Together, they almost simultaneously passed the first line without misfires and settled down eight seconds from Latypov.
The same was their lag after the stand, which both Scandinavians also passed cleanly.
On the last lap, Legrade tried to attack the Russian, but quickly gave up and lost all his strength.
Andersen, on the other hand, prudently decided to compete for third place with Fillon Maillet, who perked up after the disastrous first lap and worked phenomenally in the second half of the distance.
The newcomer of the Norwegian national team prevailed over the owner of the track and for the first time in his career appeared on the podium.
After his finish, the top three took the final form.
The last attempt to break into the top ten was made by Alexander Povarnitsyn and Daniil Serokhvostov, who started one after the other.
The clean first shooting gave them some very tempting prospects, especially with Saturday's pursuit and mass start.
In the course of the second round, Serokhvostov even climbed to fourth place, losing four seconds to Legrade.
Povarnitsyn also managed to close all the targets for the second time, so he returned to the track with an eighth time.
Serokhvostov nevertheless made one mistake and was forced to retreat.
At the finish, both were behind Khalili and Loginov, who by that time had firmly taken 11th and 12th places, but did not fall out of the second ten, showing 14th and 18th times.
Tomshin ended up in 25th place, that is, all Russian biathletes were in the top 30.
The Annecy Sprint has become the most successful race for the Russian team.
Johannes Thingnes Boe gets his first victory of the season in the @BiathlonALGB Men Sprint🔥
🥇 Johannes T. Boe @NSSF_Biathlon
🥈 Eduard Latypov @russianbiathlon
🥉 @ Filip_andersen @ NSSF_Biathlon
Watch all competitions on https://t.co/MjavpAUfwitter. com / sDFxFQwo22
- BMW IBU World Cup (@IBU_WC) December 17, 2021