Medal contrary: Russia with a penalty loop won silver in the relay at the KM stage in Anterselva

On Sunday, January 23, the men's relay four from Russia was waiting for a kind of defense of the local title.

At the previous stage of the World Cup in Ruhpolding, domestic biathletes unexpectedly won and wanted to consolidate their success in Anterselva - in the last race before the Olympic Games.

Fans waited with great interest for the announcement of the squad, because Daniil Serokhvostov and Maxim Tsvetkov did not start in Italy, and Alexander Loginov took part only in the individual race.

As a result, the composition was half updated.

They decided to save Tsvetkova and Karim Khalili, and Anton Babikov and Eduard Latypov made up the company of Loginov and Serkhovostov.

For the first, it was a great opportunity to prove his need for the team in the relay at the Olympic Games in case of health problems with partners.

As for the second, the coaching staff had to understand whether he was ready to help the team in this kind of program.

Unfortunately, he failed the mass start with eight penalties and finished in 25th place.

Babikov acted as a slaughterer for the Russians.

First of all, he was required to demonstrate his trademark accurate shooting and keep the team in the fight.

Anton, as expected, did not strive to get ahead and was in the group of leaders, not far behind his competitors.

But on the bed, there were no equals to the Russian.

He worked quickly and cleanly, the first to leave the line.

Following him, in a few seconds, representatives of Norway, France, Germany, Switzerland, Romania, Poland, Estonia and Sweden settled down.

However, the 2017 world champion in this type of program was soon surpassed by Sturla Holm Legrade, Fabien Claude, and even Roman Res.

In addition, on one of the climbs, the Ufa man broke his stick and lost a few seconds because of this.

Thus, he did not go through the second round in the best way and came to the rack only fifth.

Unfortunately, this time it was not without misfires.

Moreover, Babikov, excited by an unpleasant incident, did not close two targets.

On the last lap, Anton was in for another trouble.

In order not to step on a stick to Belarusian Nikita Lobastov, he tried to quickly rearrange his skis, but got on an icy section of the track and lost his balance.

As a result, the Russian passed the baton to Serokhvostov in sixth, almost half a minute behind.

The intermediate first place was taken by the French, and the second by the Norwegians.

Daniil started his stage very powerfully and at the first control cutoff he was already 22 seconds behind the leader.

Soon he caught up with biathletes from Germany, Belarus and Switzerland, and they came to the shooting range in the same group.

The Russian showed himself superbly here too.

While competitors made blots one after another, he did his job perfectly and moved to fourth position.

Together with Antonin Guigonnat and Phillip Horn, he was behind Tarja Boe for about ten seconds.

Serokhvostov felt so confident that he quickly overtook the Frenchman and the German.

However, the Norwegian seemed absolutely inaccessible.

At around 12.2 km, he outperformed his pursuers by more than 15 seconds.

In addition, he worked perfectly on the rack.

Guigonne, Horne and Dmitry Pidruchny also shot accurately.

The Russian did not close one target and left the line fourth, 19 seconds behind the leader.

On the last lap, Daniel did everything in his power and managed to get a German and a Frenchman.

At his stage, he showed the best move, ahead of even Be-senior.

The Norwegian let his pursuers approach him.

When passing the baton, France was 7.3 seconds behind, Russia - 13.5, and Germany - 14.9.

In turn, Loginov calmly took out Simon Dethier.

True, they failed to compete on equal terms with Johannes Boe.

He calmly increased the gap from his pursuers and, all alone, came to the prone, where he quickly closed all the targets.

But the Russian, unfortunately, faced serious problems.

He made three misfires and was on the verge of leaving the penalty loop, but still coped with the nerves.

But the gap from the leader was already 50 seconds, and from the second or third lines - about 20.

On the second lap, Alexander did everything to reduce the gap from his competitors, but he did not get much closer.

A minute separated him from Be-younger.

In addition, the current owner of the "Big Crystal Globe" again turned out to be ideal at the turn.

But the Russian race was overwhelmed - as a result, two more misses.

From the turn, the 2020 world champion left fifth, half a minute behind Dethier and 20 seconds behind David Zobel.

In such a situation, Russian fans had to wait for a miracle from Latypov, who had just returned to duty after suffering a coronavirus.

However, the fight for medals continued.

Eduard left for the fourth stage, almost behind the back of the German.

And the rivals were quite tough - Lucas Fracher and Eric Perrault.

The Norwegians, for whom Vetle Shosta Christiansen ran, could be congratulated in advance on the victory.

The Russian quickly took out the representative of Germany, and then bypassed him.

We managed to get closer to Perro.

This set in an optimistic mood, but it was important for the athlete to cope with the shooting.

Alas, on the bench, as in the mass start, failure awaited him.

Latypov made three misses, and failed to close one target with additional cartridges and went to the penalty loop, significantly complicating his task of hitting the top three.

The backlog from Norway was more than two minutes, and from Fracher increased to 28 seconds.

The stance gave cause for restrained optimism.

Latypov worked almost perfectly, making only one miss.

Fracher also made one misfire.

At the exit from the border, they were separated by 13 seconds.

Suddenly, on the last lap, the strength of the young Perrault ended.

The 20-year-old biathlete practically stood up and allowed the German to bypass him.

They were quickly approached by Latypov, who overtook the Frenchman on the last climb, and then effortlessly dealt with the representative of Germany and brought silver to the Russian team.

The domestic team had an ambiguous race ahead of the Olympics.

On the one hand, a total of 12 misses were made, a penalty loop was passed, and the backlog from Norway was almost two minutes.

On the other hand, the Russians secured their place on the podium without Tsvetkov and Khalili.

I was also pleased with the speed of the athletes.

Babikov, even despite the fall and the broken stick, showed the sixth move at his stage, Serokhvostov - the first, and Loginov and Latypov - the second.