Loginov's silver, Tsvetkov's progress and Kazakevich's rise: how the Russians performed in pursuit at the KM stage in biathlon

In the pursuit races at the World Cup stage in Ruhpolding, it was initially difficult for the Russians to count on the fight for medals.

The reason is an unsuccessful performance in the sprint.

First of all, this concerned men who did not even manage to get into the top 20.

Women showed more acceptable results.

The best of the Russians was Svetlana Mironova, who was in eighth place, 51 seconds behind the winner Elvira Oeberg and only 21 behind the bronze medalist Dorothea Wierer.

However, Mironova fell ill before the race.

According to the head coach of the national team Mikhail Shashilov, the girl felt a slight malaise, her temperature rose.

In this regard, it was decided not to risk the health of the athlete.

The rest of the Russians had to get out of the depths. Valeria Vasnetsova took 18th place in the sprint, Kristina Reztsova - 20th, Irina Kazakevich - 35th, Ulyana Nigmatullina - 49th, and Anastasia Shevchenko - 57th. Of course, the main hopes were placed on the fast Reztsova, who, thanks to an excellent move, was able to win back many positions.

Unfortunately, the frisky start played against her. The biathlete started so rapidly that she did not have time to recover by the first firing line and, having made two misses, she dropped to 31st line. After this, it was hard for Christina to count on a good performance. Moreover, on the second bed, the athlete also faced failure. This time she did not close as many as three targets. On the counter, things also traditionally went not in the best way - two misfires. Thus, the leader of the team shot the worst in this race and placed 36th in the final standings. Four misses were made by Vasnetsova, who dropped to 29th position.

But the rest of the Russians, on the contrary, did not experience problems at the borders and made only three misses for three. I was especially surprised by Kazakevich, who experienced serious problems in this component at the start of the season. On Sunday, she only missed once on the second prone. Together with a traditionally good move, this allowed her to win back 21st place and fly up to 14th position.

An even more impressive breakthrough was made by Nigmatullina, who won back 24 lines and became 25th. Like her compatriot, failure awaited her only on the second bed. Finally, Shevchenko exchanged 16 places and stopped a step away from hitting the cup points. But the speed of both left much to be desired. Ulyana showed the 30th move, and Anastasia - the 47th. Moreover, the latter, speaking in the IBU Cup, took her due due to the rapid overcoming of the distance. Perhaps an injury prevented her from showing herself at the elite level, because after the sprint the girl was noticeably limping.

However, it was accurate shooting that became the key to success in the women's pursuit.

Marte Røiseland closed all the targets and was 21 seconds ahead of the faster Oeberg Jr.

The Norwegian not only once again proved herself to be the queen of pursuits, winning the fourth out of five starts this season, but also strengthened her leadership in the overall standings of the KM.

In turn, the Swede in the fight for silver was ahead of her older sister Hanna thanks to the only miss that she made at the last stand.

Loginov's breakthrough

An equally difficult race was waiting for the Russian men, who, after a failure in the sprint, lost their chances to get the maximum quota for the Olympics.

Only the 21st had to go to the start of Maxim Tsvetkov (more than a minute behind Quentin Fillon Maillet).

Daniil Serokhvostov is 23rd, Alexander Povarnitsyn is 31st, Alexander Loginov is 32nd, Said Karimulla Khalili is 35th.

However, the national biathletes should have been strengthened by the victory in the relay race on Saturday.

First of all, this concerned Tsvetkov, who perfectly passed the last stage and practically guaranteed himself a trip to the Olympic Games, although at the beginning of the season he did not even dream of getting into the first team.

But in the end, the main character in the national team was not Tsvetkov, but Loginov, who at the start was almost 80 seconds behind the leader.

Alexander was not ready to put up with the current situation and immediately began to bypass his opponents one by one.

At around 1.7 km, he was already 26th.

Further, Loginov and Tsvetkov worked cleanly on the bench and climbed to 11th and 13th places, respectively.

By the way, at the first shooting range there was such a dense congestion of biathletes that many simply did not have enough installations.

Fortunately, the Russians took the mats in time and did not waste time waiting.

On the second shooting they again closed five targets.

Alexander soared to fourth position, behind only Benedict Doll, Fillon Maillet and Eric Lesser, and Maxim left the race ninth.

The rest of the Russians made misfires and remained outside the top 20: Serokhvostov was 24th, Povarnitsyn - 30th, Khalili - 35th.

Unfortunately, Loginov did not do without mistakes at all.

On the first stand, he made one blot and rolled back to eighth line.

But Tsvetkov continued to shoot perfectly, who left the line sixth and fought for awards with Lesser, Doll, Sebastian Samuelsson, Vytautas Stroley and Simon Eder.

The leader of the overall standings of KM Fillon Maillet, however, confidently ran to another victory.

Even a miss at the final frontier did not prevent him from finishing first.

But the pursuers trembled together, including Tsvetkov, who did not close two targets.

But Loginov, for once, definitely worked on the stand and went into the race third after Stroley.

On the last lap, Alexander easily overtook the Lithuanian, and also by experience he held back the attacks of the fast Belarusian Anton Smolsky and took a medal in the personal KM race for the second time this season.

Moreover, he managed to win back exactly 30 places compared to the sprint.

Tsvetkov is also worthy of praise, who fought for awards to the end and eventually showed the ninth result.

Serokhvostov managed to climb into the top 20, finishing the race 17th and missing only two targets.

But the two remaining Russians were not pleased.

Khalili, with three misses, was only 30th, and Povarnitsyn, with four, was 41st.