The victories of Babikov and Derbusheva and the “globes” of Goreeva and Khalili: what do you remember about mass starts at the KR stage in Tchaikovsky

Incredible fight for the "Big Crystal Globe"

Before the final race of the Russian Cup, women had a serious intrigue both in the fight for the Big Crystal Globe and for the small trophy.

In the overall standings, Victoria Slivko was three points ahead of Elizaveta Kaplina and 29 ahead of Anastasia Goreeva.

It seemed that the fans were waiting for an exciting rivalry between the first two for the title, but Kaplina's state of health prevented the face-to-face duel.

Her coach Artyom Istomin explained that the ward caught a cold.

Given the severe frosts in Chaikovsky, this is not surprising.

At the same time, Elizabeth, without even going to the start, retained her chances for first place, because this race, as the worst, did not count for her.

She just had to wait for the results and count the points.

As a result, both contenders for the "globe" did not perform well.

Apparently, there was a serious responsibility.

Goreeva completely failed the race.

On the first two firing lines, she made a total of four misses and rolled back to 18th line.

It seemed that the title can be forgotten.

Later, the biathlete explained the unsuccessful shooting by the cold, because of which her hands froze.

Slivko worked better: she left only one uncovered target on the prone and held on to a high, sixth position.

The representatives of Mikhail Shashilov's group, Tamara Derbusheva and Irina Kazakevich, looked much more worthy.

They fought for medals from the first meters of the distance.

Especially pleased Derbusheva.

Previous races in Tchaikovsky, she did not run very well and did not even get into the top 10.

But in the mass start, the athlete threw off the burden of responsibility and for the second time in this Cup of the country did not make a single mistake.

And after the first stand, Tamara took the lead and did not give it to anyone.

On the last lap, she worked for pleasure and even had the opportunity to finish with the flag of the Sverdlovsk region, but did not take it.

“The girls warmed me up a lot in the first laps, so it was even hot.

I tried to shoot carefully so as not to make myself an extra distance.

Kazakevich encouraged me with her outgoing back, tried to hold on to her and keep up, - Derbusheva said on Match TV.

- It is unusual to run in the cold.

This only happened at the beginning of the season, we have already lost the habit of it, but now we remember it again.

From the gold medal joy, of course.

Kazakevich herself finished 30.3 seconds behind her teammate.

She was prevented from fighting for the first line by two misfires at the third line.

Irina, like Goreeva, explained mistakes in shooting by the fact that her hands were frozen.

However, this is unlikely to greatly upset Shashilov, whose two wards completed the Russian Cup at once on a positive note.

Moreover, Anastasia Batmanova was also in the top three for a long time, but in the end she fell back to eighth position.

Bronze was won by Natalya Gerbulova, who lost exactly 50 seconds to the winner.

But the struggle for the "Big Crystal Globe" went on until the last moments.

At the third line, Slivko did not close two targets, and Goreeva - one.

This helped Anastasia close the gap with her opponent.

On the final standing, the experienced Victoria managed her nerves and finally knocked out “zero”, while the pursuer added another misfire to her liability.

The first left the turn of the sixth, and the second - the 12th.

In this sequence, they came to the finish line, although Goreeva tried to climb higher to the end in order to get ahead of her competitor in the overall standings.

As a result, both scored an equal number of points - 543 and had to count the number of victories.

Slivko did not win a single one, while her rival won two personal races.

Thus, she won the trophy without even finishing in the top 10 in the final run.

“I tried to get Slivko, it’s hard to calculate how many points I needed.

Today I felt hard today, yesterday's race had a negative impact on my condition.

I counted roughly.

I saw three in front of me at the finish lap, I tried to give it my all to get them, but I couldn’t, ”the biathlete shared her emotions.

However, Victoria did not look very upset, especially since, as a consolation prize, she got the “Small Crystal Globe” in the mass start program, in the standings of which she was ahead of Goreeva by one point.

“I didn’t count points along the distance, the race is very fast.

I thought for myself, it was cold, it was difficult to shoot at the lines.

I put on warm gloves, but it was uncomfortable.

She didn’t freeze, but she ran like a bear cub.

There was no mega excitement.

Calmly went to the start.

I understood that I needed to do everything I was capable of, ”Slivko summed up the race.

Battle for medals at the finish line

There was less intrigue in the men's mass start, because Karim Khalili in the overall standings broke away from the closest pursuer Alexander Povarnitsyn by 42 points and practically secured the victory for himself.

And Eduard Latypov, who was in third place, was completely behind him by 125 points.

But the fight for the "Small Globe" Anton Babikov could well be imposed by both Povarnitsyn and Khalili.

But the 2017 world champion had an amazing race and left no chance for his pursuers.

This year, he got into great shape and won two victories at the stage in Rybinsk.

In Chaikovsky, in the sprint-pursuit combination, the experienced biathlete showed the 16th and tenth results, respectively, but this can rather be explained by mistakes at the borders.

In the mass start, he showed much more confident work on the shooting range and made only two misses.

True, the first half of the race was not very successful: he did not close one target on the benches and was fourth.

But on the stand, Babikov was perfect and finished the Russian Cup on a positive note.

Anton added "Small Globe" to gold, and immediately after the finish he revealed two secrets of his success.

“I want to say a big thank you to the psychologist — I worked with her yesterday.

Margo, thanks!

She made a significant contribution to today's victory.

So far, I’m working with her pointwise, but I know that many of us resort to her help.

I think we have a big reserve in this.

Skis Alexander Loginov, we also thank him very much, we are waiting for him, ”the athlete said on the air of Match TV.

Was satisfied with the performance of the ward and Sergei Bashkirov, who called the race the best in his performance in recent years.

According to the coach, the biathlete correctly distributed his forces over the distance.

If Babikov's victory did not come as a surprise, then Roman Eremin's silver was a pleasant surprise.

Prior to this, the representative of the Novosibirsk region only once got on the podium in the completed season of the Kyrgyz Republic - in the sprint in Tyumen.

In Tchaikovsky, he almost won gold.

Everything was decided by the last stand, to which the leaders came almost simultaneously.

But Babikov closed all the targets, and Eremin misfired.

The fight for bronze was led by Khalili and Povarnitsyn.

Karim started the race not in the best way and after the second milestone with two misses he even dropped to tenth position.

Alexander was in seventh.

However, this was still not enough to beat the competitor in the overall standings.

Moreover, the leader did not allow more misfires and gradually improved his position in the protocol.

As in the case of Babikov and Eremin, everything was decided on the final standing, where Povarnitsyn made a mistake once, and the opponent turned out to be accurate again.

At the exit from the line, Alexander was ahead of his opponent, but on the finishing lap he let him go ahead.

“I was driving and counting before the last stand, they told me that Sasha was fourth.

I looked at his setup and saw that he missed once.

I told myself that I can't be wrong.

I thought it would be the coolest if we go to the last lap together and find the strongest there.

And I go out to the last lap and see that Sasha is right there, ”Khalili shared his impressions.

And his coach Artyom Istomin was glad that the ward coped with the task psychologically and worked perfectly on the rack.

“Babikov and Khalili are able to get together.

From the first lap it was clear that Anton was charged only for victory, it was read in his eyes.

The way he worked aggressively at the turn, he already killed everyone there.

Karim understood all the layouts, ”the specialist summed up.

In turn, Povarnitsyn, like Slivko, was not very upset by the defeat in the battle for the Big Crystal Globe.

In his opinion, in such frosty weather, one should be glad that he reached the finish line.

“Sliding was much worse than usual, the state of health did not allow me to work out the race in a quality manner.

He overcame himself, tried to cling to those who were ahead, because he himself could not offer anything, ”the biathlete complained.