In the current season of the Biathlon World Cup, only two individual races were scheduled. The first one took place at the stage in Östersund. Then the best result among Russians was shown by Eduard Latypov. He made one penalty and finished seventh, 96.5 seconds back. In Antholz, the leader of the national team could not take part in the "biathlon classic" and compete for a small crystal globe. The athlete on January 6 in Oberhof passed a positive test for coronavirus and had to spend 14 days in quarantine. Initially, he was allowed to leave his hotel room for no more than two hours daily.
On Thursday, Latypov passed a second negative PCR test and went to Antholz.
He is expected to take part in the mass start and relay.
However, he simply physically did not have time to come to the individual race.
In addition to Eduard, Daniil Serokhvostov and Maxim Tsvetkov missed the start, who were given additional rest before the Olympic Games in Beijing.
At the same time, Karim Khalili, on the contrary, planned to perform only in the “biathlon classic”.
He was the first of the Russians to start: under the 18th number.
At first, the biathlete was guided by the results of Vetle Christiansen and Sturla Legrade.
The latter won the first individual race of the season, so he put on the red jersey.
Khalili was followed by two more formidable Norwegians - the Boe brothers.
However, despite the serious company, Karim did not get lost in it. Although the Russian did not look his best at a distance, unlike his rivals, he showed good shooting. Legrade and Christiansen weren't perfect in both stances, earning three and four penalty minutes respectively. Karim, on the other hand, made only one miss at all firing lines and went to the finish lap first in the intermediate protocol.
The Boe brothers, despite the excellent move, also did not work out shooting. Tarje made two offensive misses in the last standing, but at a distance he turned out to be much faster than Khalili. The Norwegian at the finish line overtook the Russian by 38.8 seconds. Johannes looked even more powerful move, but as often happens, this led to errors on the shooting range. His bullets missed their targets three times, but at the same time, the Viking tried to surpass the time of the Russian to the last. The Olympic champion was very close to it, but only a couple of seconds were missing.
However, the real hero of the individual race was not Karim, who imposed the fight on the Norwegians, but Anton Babikov. Before going to the start, he admitted in an interview with Match TV that he still hopes to take part in the Olympic Games. While he is among the substitutes, but he believes in the ability to change everything at the last moment. On Thursday, he took the first step towards his dream.
The Russian became the only biathlete who managed to close all 20 targets, and, accordingly, did not earn a single penalty minute. He left for the last lap with an advantage of 46.8 seconds over Boe Sr. However, at each of the cut-offs along the distance, it gradually melted. It was clear how Babikov struggled with himself on the track, but went to his cherished goal. The Russian fans had to be pretty nervous at the moment when Anton rolled out to the finish line, but fortunately, he had enough backlog - he surpassed the Norwegian by 9.7 seconds.
True, it was too early to relax and accept congratulations on the first victory of the season and the second in his career.
The French, who started later, tried to beat the result of the Russian.
Right up to the last firing line, Emilien Jacquelin went with zeros, but the biathlete could not cope with the stance.
Two misses dropped him to the final tenth place.
Could intervene in the distribution of places on the podium and Alexander Loginov.
He missed his first shot, but then closed 14 targets in a row.
When it seemed that the leader of the Russian team would be able to intervene in the distribution of medals, he was again let down by the last stand.
The same two misses as Jacquelin, and only seventh place.
The race turned out to be a failure for Alexander Povarnitsyn.
The Russian "shot himself" at the first firing line: due to a gust of wind, he was unable to close a single target.
And after he missed three more times, he finished the performance ahead of schedule.
For Khalili, who retained third place, the podium was the first of his career in individual races.
Previously, he won medals only in relay races.
At the same time, the Russian noted that he was far from in the best shape.
“The day before yesterday I did strength training with a stepless move, after which everything hurts terribly, so today I expected a much more difficult condition, and it was like that.
But I thought that I would lose much more.
It was possible to more or less cope with this and with shooting.
A little lacked at the turn, but, in general, a good race turned out.
It cannot but rejoice that in such a difficult condition it was possible to show a more or less decent result.
There was a strong impulse on the bed, which I coped with.
And when he passed, I roughly worked out the last shot and missed.
It’s unpleasant to make such a mistake, ”Khalili said on Match TV.
Three-time world champion Ivan Cherezov complained that the Russian team has only five places for the Olympic Games.
In his opinion, Babikov deserves a trip to Beijing.
“It seems that the composition has been announced, there is a limited number of athletes.
And the guys show such a result ... Anton definitely deserves to perform at the Olympic Games.
But it so happens that we do not have the sixth quota.
Now we have to choose.
Anton is a mature person, prompts, helps the guys.
Babikov is an authority on the team, ”Cherezova quotes Cherezov.
Before the Games, there are two more races in Antholz, and it is not yet clear in what condition Latypov will come to the team.
Therefore, Babikov still has a theoretical chance.
At least, Anton himself, judging by the interview, is sure of this and will continue to try to change the opinion of the coaching staff.
There are six days left before leaving for China.