The men's pursuit race at the World Cup in Oberhof could not but delight the Russian fans with its starting protocol.
Three biathletes of the national team were in the first eight: Alexander Loginov earned the right to open the competition, Anton Babikov received the sixth number, and Daniil Serokhvostov - the eighth.
This hasn't happened in the pursuit for a long time.
The last time three Russian biathletes started in the group of leaders in December 2015 at the stage in Pokljuka.
Then Evgeny Garanichev, Alexey Slepov and Anton Shipulin managed to enter the top six in the sprint, and in the pursuit, Shipulin won bronze.
With the start of the reporting race, Loginov confidently rushed forward, and no one tried to catch up with him before the first shooting, although the Frenchman Emilien Jacquelin and the Norwegian Sturla Legrade could try if they wanted to.
In the strongest group, everyone retained their positions, except for Babikov - he traditionally saved strength for the start of the race and let the Norwegian Tarjei Bo and Serokhvostov go ahead.
Let's go!
đź’Ą First 10 athletes are all within 38 seconds from each other.
It's going to be an exciting race.
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At the first shooting range, Loginov worked cleanly and increased his advantage to 28 seconds.
The other two Russians did not avoid a miss, but at the same time remained in the top six, behind the medal positions by 20 seconds.
Between them and Loginov were Legrade, Bo Sr. and Jacquelin.
The second lying down allowed Loginov to further strengthen his leadership.
He hit all the targets again, which the two closest pursuers from Norway could not do.
Jacquelin was accurate, but spent a lot of time shooting.
Babikov moved up to second place, 49 seconds behind Loginov.
True, a whole line of fellow travelers lined up behind him, including Boe, Jacquelin, the Swede Sebastian Samuelsson and the German Erik Lesser.
Serokhvostov let his compatriots go and dropped to ninth place because of the penalty loop.
No problems for Alexandr Loginov in the first prone - his lead increases even further with Jacquelin heading to the penalty loop!
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At the end of the half of the race, it was also worth paying attention to other Russians who started away from the medal positions.
Maxim Tsvetkov and Karim Khalili, thanks to their error-free shooting, got to the top twenty and bypassed, among others, the Norwegian Johannes Boe.
From the very beginning, the race did not go well only for Alexander Povarnitsyn, who fell out of the points zone.
Further, the athletes were waiting for standing shooting.
For Loginov, this was a difficult test, and he himself understood this perfectly.
Therefore, I decided to accelerate as much as possible on the third lap in order to have room for maneuver.
The leader's advantage exceeded a full minute and was not at all superfluous.
Loginov made the first mistake, and after that he manually reloaded the jammed rifle.
Such losses at the shooting range should have significantly reduced the gap.
But few took advantage of such a gift from a Russian.
Almost all of the pursuers also earned penalty circles, and Babikov had a failure - he did not close three targets.
Luck smiled only at Jacquelin, who moved up to second place, 33 seconds behind the leader.
Serokhvostov returned to sixth position, without losing the chances for bronze, from which at that moment he was separated by 14 seconds.
Some issues for Loginov in the first standing, who misses a target and has to manually reload a few bullets - but still a healthy 33 seconds advantage!
đź’Ą
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Babikov fell out of the top ten, and he was even bypassed by one of the main characters of the Tsvetkov race.
The biathlete, who did not play for three years in the World Cup, started 52nd and won 40 places.
Not so far from the two Russians was Khalili, who played 29 positions.
On the penultimate lap, Loginov continued to follow his tactics, trying to compensate in advance for future mistakes on the stand at the expense of speed.
The fall of Jacquelin on the track allowed him to almost return to the previous gap - the Russian was in the lead with 52 seconds of advantage.
Even two misses would keep him in first place.
But there were more misfires on the last shooting.
With increased snow, Loginov hit only two targets out of five.
While he was running the extra 450 meters, the fight for the vacant first place intensified on the shooting range.
Lesser and Jacquelin in it immediately turned out to be losers, having made five mistakes for two.
But the Frenchman Kenten Fillon Maillet and Samaulsson seized their chance.
They were ahead of Loginov, who returned to the track third, by 20 and 12 seconds, respectively.
Following the Russian in pursuit of the bronze, Legrade and Bo Sr.
Tsvetkov and Khalili, who had avoided mistakes before, also wavered in the last shooting, and Serokhvostov made two mistakes.
Only Babikov coped with the wind, thanks to which he remained in the struggle for a place in the top ten.
Loginov in the final loop tried to keep behind Legrade and Bo, but he still did not have enough strength to fight at the finish line.
He spent all his reserves on acceleration before standing shooting, and when it was necessary to attack on the finish line, the Norwegians cut the Russian from bronze in a couple of steps.
The medal eventually went to Boe, and by that time Fillon Maillet and Samuelsson had already taken the gold and silver.
Loginov finished fifth, Babikov, Serokhvostov and Tsvetkov took places from tenth to 12th, and Khalili finished twenty.