Kuklina's finishing spurt and Latypov's huge lead: what do you remember about pursuits at the sixth stage of the Russian Biathlon Cup

Finish spurt by Kuklina

Russian biathletes staged a real sports performance in the pursuit race at the final stage of the National Cup in Chaikovsky.

It had everything: high expectations, offensive misses and a struggle at the finish line.

Ekaterina Noskova was the leader of the standings in this discipline, but the performance in the sprint did not work out for the athlete from KhMAO, so she went to the distance only 11th with a delay of almost one and a half minutes.

This left her not too many hopes of winning, but a sufficiently high place would allow Ekaterina to keep the first place in the ranking and get the "Small Globe".

Natalya Gerbulova was the first to leave with a 20-second lead over her closest pursuer Irina Kazakevich.

Anastasia Goreeva and Elizaveta Kaplina started eight seconds from second place.

The lag of the rest of the participants was much more solid.

So, the leader of the overall standings of the Kyrgyz Republic, Victoria Slivko, went to the sixth distance (+44.6 seconds), and the future winner of the race, Larisa Kuklina, seven seconds after her.

The key to the success of the ward of Yuri Kaminsky was accurate shooting - she was the only one out of 25 participants who did not allow a single misfire at four lines.

And the main struggle for victory unfolded between her and Goreeva, who was in the lead for most of the race - from the first to the last shooting.

The athlete from Moscow Region came to the final stand with a gap of 9.5 seconds from Kaplina, calmly closed four targets, but hesitated before the last shot - and missed.

And Elizaveta, who had given all her best on the track before the shooting, catching up with her rival, failed to take advantage of the misfire and missed twice.

Kuklina, who came third at the shooting range, closed all the targets and led the race.

Goreeva at the exit from the stadium was 8.5 seconds behind her, but quickly made up the gap.

Kuklina let her opponent go forward, but did not give up - she stood behind her and tried to keep up.

At the finish line, Larisa rushed forward, and Anastasia no longer found the strength to resist.

In the final protocol, they were separated by 0.8 seconds.

After the finish, Goreeva fell on the snow and could not get up for a long time.

The coaches had to help the athlete and bring her to life with the help of ammonia.

As Anastasia later said, she felt unwell while shooting, and ran the last meters of the distance “on the machine”, completely unaware of what she was doing.

In her opinion, this is how acclimatization takes place after gathering in the mountains.

Kuklina also felt that her opponent was not at ease.

According to Larisa, she did not expect that she would be able to beat Goreeva at the finish line.

“Perhaps she is a little out of shape, tired after the mountains.

And so Nastya is a very strong sprinter.

I expected that she would overtake me, and the main task was to be patient with her, and at the finish line, how would it turn out.

Everyone knows that I am not the strongest sprinter, there is no explosive power, so I am glad that I was able to compete with her in the finish line, ”said the athlete on Match TV.

And the fight for the bronze medal on the last lap unfolded between Kaplina and Gerbulova.

Elizabeth left the stadium with an advantage of 8.4 seconds, but Natalia managed to overtake her and overtake her.

“The coaches urged me on the course.

And I'm driving and thinking: "This is Lisa Kaplina."

And I answer myself: “But I’m Natalia Gerbulova!”

I think my character affected first of all, when I overtook, Lisa let me go and did not fight, ”Gerbulova shared.

As a result of the race, the owner of the small cup was also determined, which, unexpectedly, first of all for herself, was Kuklina.

Before the final, Larisa ranked fourth in the ranking and was 23 points behind the leader Noskova.

But Ekaterina did not shine in the race - six misses and 12th place - which allowed Yuri Kaminsky's ward to win in the pursuit standings.

“I didn't expect this at all.

When I was called to the pedestal to present the cup, I didn’t even understand what was happening, ”admitted Kuklin after the award.

Despite the final fifth place, Slivko retained the yellow jersey of the leader in the overall standings.

But Kaplina is only three points behind her, so it will be hot in Sunday's mass start.

Latypov's victory and "Small Globe" Khalili

In the men's pursuit, Eduard Latypov did not allow any intrigue to play out regarding the winner.

The representative of Bashkortostan, who went to the distance with a 40-second advantage, coped phenomenally with shooting at all firing lines, depriving the opponents of the opportunity to somehow wedge into the fight.

However, in some episodes, Kaminsky's ward made both coaches and fans nervous.

So, on the very first prone, he barely passed two dimensions, and on the rack, Eduard aimed the first and last shots for a long time, but in the end he closed the targets.

“Today it turned out without mistakes.

It was exciting.

At the third line, it shook a little, because I approached him too quickly.

Decided to do what I can.

I understood that I just needed to be calm, removed my emotions.

I walked the distance at my own pace, the coaches suggested.

For the race, I can give myself “nine” on a ten-point scale,” Latypov said after the race.

The main fight was for the second place.

Up to nine biathletes participated in it at different stages of the race.

Before the third shooting, five athletes from the group of pursuers managed without misfires: Karim Khalili, Kirill Bazhin, Matvey Eliseev, Pyotr Pashchenko and Maxim Tsvetkov, Evgeny Garanichev was approaching them.

On the contrary, the shooting let down some leaders.

So, Daniil Serokhvostov, who at the start had 23 seconds of advantage over third place, made two misses at the very first shooting range, and then added four more penalty loops to them on the remaining ones.

All this, of course, did not give him a chance to fight even for a place in the top ten - he is only 11th.

Alexander Povarnitsyn, who was the leader of the pursuit standings before the race, also failed to cope with the shooting.

As a result, he lost the Small Globe to Karim Khalili, who, although he did not close one target on the first stand, was stronger with his legs than Bazhin and Eliseev, who finished the race with four zeros.

“In general, we had a tight fight, especially the first two or three laps.

Many guys worked exactly at the turn.

It's been a very interesting race.

Today in the contact race it was easier to run than yesterday in the sprint, because in the group you can sit somewhere and relax.

I think that I also felt better than yesterday, ”said Karim after the finish.

Khalili also retained the yellow jersey of the leader in the overall standings of the country's Cup.

“It’s too early to talk about winning the overall standings, because everything changes in every race.

Tomorrow is the final start.

I hope we will also present a spectacular fight, enjoy the race and give the fans the opportunity to enjoy it, ”concluded the athlete.