For the first single mixed mix of the season, the coaching staff of the Russian national team has chosen practically the strongest line-up at the moment.
At the World Cup in Oberhof, Anton Babikov and Kristina Reztsova were paired up, who took sixth and seventh places in the sprints on Friday.
The duo could well have entered Alexander Loginov, but he got a day of rest before Sunday's pursuit.
Why Babikov and Reztsova were freed from the mixed relay, choosing an experimental team for her, was explained quite simply. The single mixed could still help the Russian men's team achieve the maximum quota of six people for the Beijing Olympics. It is given to countries by position in the ranking, which takes into account one best result in each discipline over the past two seasons. This was the fifth place for the Russian national team at the last year's stage in Nove Mesto. So in order to score at least some points in the qualifying ranking, it was necessary to win any medal, even a “wooden” one.
When the race started, Babikov, like the day before in the sprint, at first did not amaze with his speed.
At some point, he even dropped out of the top ten, while walking to the firing line.
By shooting, he slightly improved his position and climbed to fifth place, behind the Norwegian Vetle Christiansen, Swede Jesper Nelin and German Eric Lesser about 11 seconds.
But the stand was much worse for Babikov.
He had to delay in order to close two targets on the second attempt.
The Russian dropped out of the top five, and the gap from the first place increased by another ten seconds.
Reztsova began to correct the situation.
She went her first lap very quickly and almost caught up with the leadership group.
But the jerk cost her very dearly - she failed the bench, earning a penalty loop.
The Russian duo immediately dropped beyond the top ten.
This did not bother Reztsova at all.
She continued to give all her best on the track and even showed the best time on the second lap.
She started shooting with a miss, and then closed all targets with lightning speed.
Most biathletes weren't so lucky on the rack.
Due to their mistakes, Reztsova even rose to third place, behind a few seconds by German Francis Hildebrand and Ukrainian Daria Blashko.
Babikov, after returning to the track, did not immediately repeat the feats of his compatriot.
He still ran into his own strength and held on to third position, but was forced to let Lesser go.
Again, it was not possible to reduce the lag due to shooting - the gust of wind was such that two misses could be considered a good result.
But on his last lap Babikov performed impressively.
He finally turned on his reserves to get closer to Lesser, who himself lost a few seconds to a fall on the home track.
The Russian ran this segment of the distance with a third time, and then worked on the stand without a single miss.
Anton left the shooting range first and immediately passed the baton to Reztsova.
No one could compete with the Russian athlete at a distance, and for the next shooting she arrived with a comfortable 6.5 seconds lead from Hildebrand.
Reztsova needed to show herself just as well at the turn, and this time she succeeded.
She only made one mistake, which, considering how hard the wind continued to blow, was a great achievement.
Christina is already 25 seconds ahead of her closest rivals.
Only a catastrophe in the final standing could prevent this advantage from being maintained, but Reztsova avoided it.
She immediately corrected two mistakes and went to the last loop, when the Austrian Lisa Theresa Hauser had not yet managed to hit a single target.
Single Mixed Relay victory for @russianbiathlon on Oberhof!
💪
🥇🇷🇺 Reztsova / Babikov
🥈🇦🇹 Hauser / Eder @OESVbiathlon
🥉🇺🇦 Blashko / Tyshchenko
Watch all competitions on https://t.co/bk5aBBso9Q or follow on the Official IBU App!
📲 pic.twitter.com/lkDkQ1vXZM
- BMW IBU World Cup (@IBU_WC) January 8, 2022
The Russian national team won a single mixed medal for the second time in history.
The only success before that was the gold of Yana Romanova and Alexei Volkov in February 2015.
The victory of Babikov and Reztsova allowed the Russian team to lead the World Cup in mixed relay races and increased the chances of a full Olympic quota for men.