In Malinovka, the ski tournament Champion Heights began with sprint races in the classic style.
As planned by the organizers, it should become an alternative to the World Championship, which takes place in Planica on the same dates.
And in terms of the intensity of the struggle, the first day of the competition was in no way inferior to the main start of the international season.
All the leaders of both the men's and women's national teams of Russia came to the Arkhangelsk region.
First of all, the audience was waiting for the rivalry between Alexander Bolshunov and Sergey Ustyugov, who at the end of last year almost fought for the first place in contact races.
However, those emotions had time to cool down a little, because after the holidays the rivals did not meet again on the track.
Ustyugov left for Syktyvkar, where he systematically prepared for the Champion heights.
In women, Natalia Nepryaeva had to compete with the ambitious Veronika Stepanova, who returned after a pause in the competition, Yulia Stupak, as well as Anastasia Faleeva and Khristina Matsokina, who performed well during the season.
However, the sprint is very unpredictable and Thursday was not without surprises.
Moreover, already at the stage of the quarter-finals.
So, unexpectedly, Stepanov could not get into the number of the two strongest of her race.
The Olympic champion in the relay became only the fourth.
However, despite the result, after the finish, the girl did not look very upset.
“Working moments, we are accelerating.
Still, sprint for me is not the main discipline in Malinovka.
But I think you'll see me here again.
Championship heights will not end quickly.
What state am I in?
I think the audience sees everything, now we will accelerate.
Still, I did not expect to fight in the sprint race.
I have a skiathlon, a skate race.
I’ll run the classic 30, so guys, everything will be fine, ”the athlete promised in an interview with Match TV.
An unpleasant surprise was presented by one of the quarterfinal races for men.
Ivan Yakimushkin and the young Savely Korostelev set the tone in it.
However, at the stadium itself, they collided and fell, having lost the chance to qualify for the next stage of the competition.
Bolshunov's run turned out to be loud by name.
He ended up in company with Gleb Retivyh and Alexander Maltsev.
However, the latter unexpectedly could not impose a fight on his partners in the Russian team, so they went on without any problems.
Ustyugov and another sprint favorite Alexander Terentiev also went smoothly.
In the semi-finals, again, there were some falls.
This time, Faleeva and Alexandra Shimolina were not lucky.
Moreover, the representative of the Krasnoyarsk Territory not only ended up in the snow, but also broke the sticks.
So I ran without them for a while.
In this race, Stupak easily won by a wide margin, and in the second - Nepryaeva, who traditionally confidently ran away from her rivals at the start.
In men, Ustyugov won the first race without straining, and then there was almost a sensation.
Bolshunov was again not very lucky with the lot.
He got Terentiev, Chervotkin and Zealous as rivals.
The three-time Olympic champion could not take the lead immediately from the start, and as a result, he stayed at the end of the peloton for a long time, slowly moving forward.
On the last straight, Alexander jumped onto a parallel track and turned on his maximum speed, but he lacked a couple of meters to qualify for the next stage of the competition directly.
The first and second places were taken by Terentiev and Chervotkin, respectively.
San Sanych was third, but made it to the decisive race as a lucky loser.
The women's final turned out to be a cakewalk for Nepryaeva.
Natalia again broke away from her rivals from the very start and did not allow anyone to doubt her superiority even for a moment.
Stupak tried to catch up with her opponent, but to no avail.
Although it should be noted that Julia looked very good on the track.
The fight for second place also failed.
She crossed the finish line in splendid isolation, overtaking the bronze medalist of the sprint Alyona Baranova by almost four seconds.
And for this type of program, this is a huge advantage.
“Everything worked out.
Well-being ... I will not say that I am dissatisfied with something.
Everything worked well.
And the skis too.
I felt that Yulia was rolling over me after getting up.
I am very glad that she finally returned and today she was able to call in the second one.
I plan to run all races.
I hope that nothing like this will happen, and you will see me at every start, ”Nepryaeva said.
Stupak herself was glad to return to the competition after a short pause.
She admitted that she was finally ready to perform psychologically, and earlier she had problems with this.
“Now everything is great.
I like everything, the atmosphere is cool, I really miss it.
The main thing is that I arrived in a great mood, I want to give this energy.
And running without energy is not the same, ”said Stupak.
Suddenly there was a men's race.
Ustyugov did not shelve the matter and turned on the maximum speed from the very first meters.
The rivals were not ready for this, so a rather large gap formed between them and Sergey.
Terentiev was the first to recover from surprise.
He rushed in pursuit of the leader and, thanks to this, escaped from the main group in which Bolshunov was stuck.
Ustyugov tried not to slow down, but closer to the finish line, his advantage over the others began to slowly melt away.
And he entered the last straight line almost simultaneously with Terentyev.
However, the previously created handicap was still enough to win.
He beat Alexander by only 0.35 seconds.
Bolshunov finished third.
Interestingly, Ustyugov was not at all confident in his own tactics, since his physical condition only got worse from the race.
“I sniffed ammonia before the semi-finals and it got better, my head is thinking, my muscles are pulling.
And in the end, we managed to win today ... There was no confidence in the final, it's a gamble, you always want to try something - it will work or not.
Especially since I've been preparing for so long.
Went for broke and it worked.
I am very happy,” admitted Sergey.
Bolshunov admitted that he still had residual effects from the disease, due to which he even interrupted the collection in Sochi and left for Moscow.
Therefore, the athlete was happy with the bronze medal.
“In the final, I built tactics a little wrong, and my state of health was a bit wrong, but I drove into the prizes, everything is fine.
Let's see how it goes on, ”explained the three-time Olympic champion.