Perfect rehearsal: what the World Cup stage in Oberhof told about the readiness of Russian biathletes for the Games

The first post-New Year stage of the World Cup in Oberhof turned out to be almost triumphant for the Russian team: Alexander Loginov's gold in the sprint race and the relay victory of Christina Reztsova and Anton Babikov in the supermix.

The general picture was a little blurred only on the final day: Loginov did not manage to win the pursuit, although before entering the last line he had almost a minute margin of time.

Any intermediate success in the Olympic season, as a rule, raises only one question: will those who have already gotten in shape be able to keep it until the Games?

And is it even reasonable to build Olympic forecasts based on the results of the tournament, which took place a month before the main start?

Probably, after all, no.

Biathlon is generally not a very fertile sport for forecasts.

But it was Oberhof that became the stage after which even the skeptics understood: the domestic national team (first of all, the male team) somehow suddenly, right before our eyes, begins to catch up and look prettier.

In biathlon, there is a belief for more than a dozen years that Oberhof is a place where Russia invariably wins medals.

Even if we take the last four years, which were quite disastrous for our country, it was there that a significant part of unexpectedly high results were achieved.

In 2019, the men's and women's relay fours won.

Then Loginov won the sprint.

And in 2021, Ulyana Nigmatullina, Svetlana Mironova, Loginov and Eduard Latypov took the lead in the mixed relay.

Although if we talk about the leader of the team, which Loginov has recently been, he is unlikely to have warm feelings towards Oberhof. It was here that, after both sprint victories, Alexander failed the pursuit race (both times the athlete was let down by shooting - four misses each). Here, in 2018, Alexander became the main culprit for the fact that the national team did not make it to the podium at all - he brought three penalty loops. But here, as they say, who will remember the old ...

A month ago, at the stage in Hochfilzen, where the Russian men's four managed to climb the podium despite the penalty loop earned by Vasily Tomshin, head coach Yuri Kaminsky noted: most of all he is glad that such failures, when the team suddenly finds itself in a race on the verge of disaster, do not unsettle athletes. Oberhof once again made me remember those words. In a very important supermix for the cup standings, where, as you know, every second counts, Kristina Reztsova and Anton Babikov finished first. Even the penalty loop, which the girl had to run, did not prevent them. And thanks to this victory, the men's team had a more than real chance to still choose the full quota and take not five, but six athletes to the Olympic Games in Beijing.

I also remember how in Hochfilzen, when asked about the fact that the Russian guys suddenly and very powerfully increased their speed, Kaminsky chuckled: "Well, what do you think I was invited for?"

The most striking impression in this regard was made by Anton Babikov and Maxim Tsvetkov.

In the pursuit race, Maxim played 40 positions, having risen from the sixth ten to 12th place, showed the fifth move and commented in bewilderment himself: “I wonder if I have ever shown such a move, or not?

It is curious that in 2019 Tsvetkov in Oberhof was part of the winning four of the relay.

Then he carried out the first stage perfectly, without using up a single spare cartridge.

But then the athlete did not even have a recession, but a fall into the abyss: he disappeared from the team's clip and returned to it only now.

Babikov, who over the past four years was seen off to retirement and behind his back several times, became the sixth in the sprint in Oberhof, worked brilliantly in the relay and, if not for three misses on the pursuit stance (possibly due to fatigue from several starts in a row), could well fight for the podium. But four years ago, Anton - one of two participants in the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang from Russia - ended up here at the end of the top 30 in the sprint, losing almost two minutes to the leader with one mistake, and shooting + 7 in pursuit, becoming 55th and, in fact, he missed the next two seasons.

Should we consider a positive test for coronavirus by Eduard Latypov as a disaster, in connection with which all the athlete's competitive plans went to hell? Absolutely not. Firstly, even in quarantine, he was given the maximum possible freedom, allowing him to spend two hours a day in the snow. Secondly, the athlete has all the conditions to maintain physical condition while working in the room (here it is worth making a curtsey towards Eric Lesser, who did not spare his own exercise bike for Latypov). Thirdly, the history of biathlon knows precedents when isolation from the familiar environment and loneliness helped an athlete rethink his own training, as well as his own goals.

In this regard, the example of Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, who on the eve of the most successful in his career Olympics in Salt Lake City, had a major shooting disorder, was illustrative.

“… The last two weeks before the Olympic Games I spent in Antholz, and I settled not in a hotel, but in a tiny trailer so as not to see people.

I bought my own food, I cooked skis myself, I hung the targets myself.

These two weeks of absolute isolation from the world and rather harsh Spartan conditions turned out to be a terribly difficult thing.

But I needed them in order to sort out my own head and gain psychological stability.

Once the head was in place, the shooting returned.

I didn’t become a perfect shooter, but I was in good condition to win four gold medals in Salt Lake ... ”, the Norwegian recalled.

By the way, the question, whether the leaders of the national team will be able to keep their shape before the Games, should, in my opinion, be replaced by another: can it be generally considered that the team (we are talking primarily about the male part of it) has already reached its peak?

Probably not.

The same Loginov, as shown by the final race of Oberhof, is far from ideal shooting conditions.

He continues to experiment with the speed of work at the frontiers.

The same can be said for the rest.

Although there is reason for optimism here, too: when athletes confidently go at high speeds, it becomes much easier to work on shooting.

In this regard, one should expect, if not a breakthrough, then at least a qualitative leap from the women's team. There, finally, Russia had a pronounced leader in the person of Reztsova, and I personally would not call the main quality of an athlete her running qualities, but her constant readiness to get involved in a situation of any complexity without losing her presence of mind. And to inspire others with it.

Perhaps, by the way, these qualities will be decisive at the Games in Beijing - the track on which the main awards of the four-year period will be played is too exotic.

According to the head of the service group of the Russian national team, Alexander Pechersky, who visited the Olympic biathlon stadium, it is very likely that, due to the constant and very strong winds, the already hard artificial snow will be mixed with coarse sand and clay.

The specialist believes that such conditions will be murder for skiing.

The shooting range is also blown through - just like it always happens in Oberhof.

And although Pechersky himself called the first of the German stages of the World Cup a children's matinee, compared to what will await the Olympians in Beijing, we can say that we had a very good rehearsal.