A gift before the Olympics: Russia won the men's relay at the KM biathlon stage in Ruhpolding

Before the men's relay as part of the World Cup stage in Ruhpolding, the Russians were a little anxious.

After a successful performance in Oberhof, domestic biathletes fell into a functional hole and showed not the best results - none of them even managed to get into the top 20 in the sprint.

The best was Maxim Tsvetkov, who took 21st place.

The women's relay did not add optimism either.

Wards of Mikhail Shashilov, although they won bronze, looked frankly weak in the course and climbed to the podium only thanks to Anna Sola's misses and Christina Reztsova's speed at the last stage.

For men, it was extremely curious what composition Yuri Kaminsky would choose, taking into account the failure on Thursday, as well as the absence of the relay finisher Eduard Latypov, who passed a positive test for the coronavirus.

As a result, Said Karimulla Khalili, as expected, became the slaughterer.

The second stage was predictably left for another young athlete Daniil Serokhvostov, who helped the team win bronze in Östersund and Hochfilzen.

The presence of Alexander Loginov did not raise questions either.

However, the coaching staff managed to surprise by putting him in the third stage.

The fourth segment was entrusted to run by an experienced relay fighter, the 2017 world champion in this discipline Maxim Tsvetkov.

It is quite possible that at the last moment he won the fight for this right against Anton Babikov, who became only 71st in the sprint.

The compositions of other strong teams also turned out to be far from optimal.

First of all, this concerned the Norwegians, who did not put up either the brothers Johannes and Tarjei Boe, or Vetle Shost Christiansen, or the runner-up in the overall standings of the last season KM Sturla Holm Legreid.

Simon Dethier did not help the French, and Johannes Kühn did not help the Germans.

Khalili, as expected, started the race quite rapidly and secured himself in the group of leaders. For some time he even held on to the first, but then let his opponents go ahead so as not to waste his strength in vain. The main thing for the Russians was to work well on the firing line, where he came second. As a result, Karim managed without misses, although he shot rather slowly and ran seventh, 9.6 seconds behind Eric Lesser, who led the race. At the same time, not everyone coped with the gusts of wind: the Frenchman Fabien Claude managed to go to the penalty loop, and the Norwegian Alexander Fjeld Andersen made two misses.

Khalili did not flinch and did not stand.

He again managed to close all five targets and go second in 1.7 seconds from the Italian Thomas Bormolini and almost simultaneously with the American Sean Doherty.

But Andersen again faced difficulties.

He had problems due to a confusion with the installation: his targets were mistakenly blocked by the Swede Peppe Femling.

The surprised Norwegian had to go to penalty loops.

The Russian worked almost perfectly on the last lap.

He did not let his opponents run away from him and passed the baton to Serokhvostov third with a minimum gap from the US and Italian teams.

Together with Karim, Belarusian Nikita Lobastov came to the finish line.

But Lesser did not have enough strength and he was behind the leader by almost 20 seconds.

The Scandinavians failed the first stage: Sweden took 20th place, and Norway - 14th.

Unfortunately, Serokhvostov immediately experienced difficulties at the turn. On the prone, he missed the first shot, and then another misfire. It's good that Daniil managed to cover the targets with additional cartridges and leave third. But the backlog from Dmitry Lazovsky, who shot perfectly, increased to 17.4 seconds. The Italian Dominik Windisch was also ahead, and Roman Res, who had worked unmistakably at the turn, literally breathed in his back.

Very quickly they were caught up by a group of pursuers led by Emilien Jacquelin, and the Frenchman even pulled ahead. True, the Russian kept his speed. All together they rapidly reduced the gap between the Belarusian and the Italian. In this situation, it was important to do without misses on the stand, and Daniil did an excellent job and left the line fifth. Ahead, in addition to Windisch, were Jacqueline, Lazovsky and Ukrainian Dmitry Pidruchny. Serohovostov's skis also worked well. He did not lose his position in the group of pursuers and reduced the gap from the first place to 8.1 seconds. Thus, Loginov went to the fourth stage in the company with a Ukrainian, a Frenchman and a Belarusian.

At the same time, the competitors in the stage turned out to be incomparable with Alexander in terms of class: Didier Bion, Bogdan Tsymbal, Maxim Vorobei and Eric Perrot. That is why the world champion not only effortlessly caught up with the Italian, but also came out on top. Then he confidently closed all five targets on the prone, although he lost a little more time to prepare than his opponents. Despite this, the domestic athlete retained the lead, ahead of the Belarusian and Ukrainian.

Tsymbal was unable to maintain the set speed and soon lagged behind by almost ten seconds, but Sparrow held on to Loginov.

The two of them came to the counter.

Alas, the leader of the Russian national team could not work out exactly.

He missed his first and last rounds, but quickly covered them up with extra shots.

Maxim also lost time and failed to get ahead of the Russian.

Tsymbal lagged behind even more, and the German Benedikt Doll rose to the fourth position.

Loginov failed to “hook off” the Belarusian on the last lap.

They came to the final transfer of the relay practically together, breaking away from the German for half a minute and from the Ukrainian for 45 seconds.

At the same time, Tsvetkov was almost late for the start, because he took the wrong sticks.

At the last stage, Maxim faced a difficult duel with the rapidly progressing Anton Smolsky, who has already twice reached the podium in the individual KM races this season.

Not going to give up and Philip Navrat, who immediately began to close the gap.

And the leader of the overall standings of the tournament, Quentin Fillon Maillet, sought to return the French team to the top three.

It was important for an experienced Russian, first of all, to work perfectly at the borders, and he coped with his task.

But the Belarusian faltered: he made a mistake and left the line almost 20 seconds from the leader.

The German, on the contrary, closed all the targets and came close to Smolsky.

At a distance, they managed to get a little closer to the leader, but everything was still in the hands of Tsvetkov.

Accurate shooting practically guaranteed Russia gold.

And Maxim coped with the task.

He closed all the targets and did not flinch, even when competitors approached the line.

The Belarusian again made one misfire, but Navrat again turned out to be accurate and left the line second in 12.6 seconds from the leader.

By the mark of 28.6 km, only 6.1 seconds were left of them, and it became alarming for the national team.

But Maxim competently laid out his forces on the last lap, and the opponent, having worked powerfully on the last climb, gave up.

As a result, Tsvetkov finished first and brought the team their debut victory in the relay this season.

Having worked superbly at the last stage, he, quite likely, secured participation in the Olympics and a place in the top four in Beijing.

The Belarusians also performed well, holding the third position, but the main favorites failed.

The French were content with the fifth line, and the Swedes - the eighth.

The Norwegians who performed in the experimental squad were given two minutes back for shooting Femling at someone else's installation, but this did not help them rise above seventh place.