A reminder of myself: Babikov won silver in the individual race at the Biathlon European Championship, Burtasova won gold

Babikov's silver answer

The biathlon world is now living not only with the upcoming Beijing Olympics, but also with the European Championship, which started on Wednesday in Arber, Germany.

All the best shooting skiers who were not included in the main team of their teams continued the season at this tournament, within which eight sets of awards will be played.

The first type of program was the men's individual race.

Among its participants was even the winner of the last stage of the World Cup.

Anton Babikov never got into the Russian team, despite an excellent performance in Anterselva.

From the very beginning, Babikov ran at a fairly high pace, overtaking the main competitors from the Norwegian team, among whom were frequent World Cup participants Johannes Dale and Erlenn Bjontegard. After the first clean shooting, he was second only to another representative of the Scandinavian team, Howard Bogetveit, but he quickly disappeared from the radar when he made two misses on the rack. By the middle of the race, Babikov led the protocol, gaining 40 seconds from his compatriot Petr Pashchenko.

For the Russian, and then everything turned out fine. And the third and fourth shooting, he went flawlessly and closed all 20 targets. The lead over the Frenchman Oscar Lombardot, who also avoided mistakes, grew to 1:44 before the last lap and only slept a little at the finish line. Babikov had to wait for the rest of the athletes to show, and for a long time nothing could cause him concern.

However, one athlete still challenged the leader of the race.

The Norwegian Sverre Aspenes was almost always behind Babikov by at least 40 seconds with clean shooting, but after the final line he suddenly halved the gap.

On the last lap, he rushed in pursuit of gold and bypassed the Russian by 11 seconds.

Babikov took second place, while confirming his sniper qualities.

After the race, he admitted that he really did not run the second half of the distance as fast as the first.

“The start was very good, with high speed and excellent shooting conditions.

But from the middle of the distance, I felt that today I was not full of energy.

I just tried to give my best in shooting and on every lap.

I think today was a good race,” said Babikov.

The medal of the European Championship really again gave reason to critically evaluate the decision not to include Babikov in the national team for a trip to Beijing.

Two-time Olympic champion Anfisa Reztsova believes that the athlete fully deserved such a right.

“I want Babikov to go to the Olympics in the main team.

With his results, Anton proves that he deserved this right.

Everyone doubts, but I'm sure it should be the basis.

Personally, I have confidence in him.

Yes, second place in the European Championship is not the best result.

But you can't deny him the desire to fight.

Anton, I believe in you!

- said Reztsova "Championship".

According to the former head coach of the Russian biathlon team Anatoly Khovantsev, if Babikov had managed to succeed in one more race before the final announcement of the composition, he would certainly have gone to the Olympics, and would not have been content with the status of a substitute

“A silver medal at the European Championships is a good result for Anton.

Although he took the lead on the last lap, in the end he lost 11 seconds to the Norwegian.

Arber has a difficult track.

But Babikov confirmed his status as a good shooter.

Since Anton became a substitute in the national team, his results have improved.

He is sportingly angry.

One good race was not enough for Babikov for the Olympic Games,” Khovantsev is sure.

Even before the start of the European Championship, Babikov himself made it clear that he did not quite agree with the decision of the coaching staff.

After the Anterselva World Cup, he posted a picture on Instagram with all the medals he won during the season and added the caption “At least I tried.”

Now he can post a new photo with another award.

Golden Shooting Burtasova

The women's individual has become even more successful for the Russian team.

The first to hope for a medal was Victoria Slivko, who was one of the first to go to the distance.

With one miss in the third shooting, she continued to lead until she was overtaken by nine seconds by the former Russian, and now Moldovan biathlete Alina Stremous.

World Cup regulars Elisa Gasparin of Switzerland and Janina Hettich of Germany were well ahead of Slivko and Stremous in the course of the race, but due to misses in the last shooting they were forced to step back.

It was not possible to catch up with the two leaders and the Ukrainian Anastasia Merkushina, who was forced to pay for her mistake in the second frontier.

Then Evgenia Burtasova and Natalya Gerbulova entered the fight, and they were the only ones able to somehow influence the distribution of medals.

Both Russians passed each line without a miss, but Hettich and Gasparin were inferior in speed.

However, the backlog was less than a minute, so both girls, in the event of a successful last shooting, must come forward.

Both Burtasova and Gerbulova coped with their task.

On the last lap, they left as leaders, having a comfortable reserve in relation to Stremous.

However, if Burtasova, as the leader of the IBU Cup, managed to keep it, then Gerbulova could not complete the final part of the distance according to the schedule of the Moldavian athlete.

She dropped to third place, and Burtasova became the European champion for the third time in her career.

At the same time, a discussion about her possible inclusion in the Olympic team is hardly possible.

Unlike Babikov, Burtasova has never competed in a World Cup race this season.

It was impossible to compare her results with Svetlana Mironova or Irina Kazakevich, so the gold of the European Championship, albeit won a week and a half before the main four-year tournament, will not affect the athlete's prospects.