Chervotkin's escape, Bolshunov's chase and Maltsev's finish with a flag: how did the men's relay race at Champion Heights go

Representative tournament "Champion Heights" in cross-country skiing continued on Friday with the men's relay.

One of the most balanced teams on the eve of the start looked like the team of the Tyumen region, which brought together the winners of the Beijing Olympics Denis Spitsov and Ivan Yakimushkin, the participant of those Games Artyom Maltsev, as well as the bronze medal winner of the 2013 World Cup Evgeny Belov.

Also, attention was focused on the team of the Arkhangelsk region, which fell to disperse Alexander Bolshunov and Alexander Terentiev.

Among the participants of the starting classical stage, in addition to Yakimushkin, Muscovite Alexei Chervotkin stood out, who repeatedly proved at major tournaments, including the Beijing Games, that he was able to run away from anyone.

Perhaps the main intrigue at the same time was whether the sprinter Terentyev could hold on to them and pass the baton to teammate Bolshunov not too far behind.

Chervotkin did not shelve the matter and tried to break away immediately, but the peloton stopped the first attempt.

But the athletes did not have time to start the second round, when Alexei turned on for real and only Andrey Larkov (Tatarstan), Yakimushkin and Ermil Vokuev (Komi) could keep up with him.

The gaps immediately began to grow, by the cut-off of 6 km the leading group was already carrying Terentyev for 36 seconds.

But only the Tyumen athlete could continue to maintain the high pace set by the Olympic champion.

Together they got to the transfer of the baton.

Konstantin Tiunov set out from Moscow for a distance, and Belov from Tyumen.

“It wasn’t hard to fight [Chervotkin] because we didn’t fight.

I just tried not to interfere with Lyokha, so that he did, as always, this race.

I was sure that he would go ahead from the first lap, because the conditions were difficult, and he really wanted to leave Arkhangelsk and other teams behind, ”Yakimushkin said after the finish.

Backlogs after the first stage and in fact turned out to be solid.

Larkov passed the baton to Sergey Ardashev after 41.9 seconds, Vokuev to Ilya Semikov - after 1 minute 14.6 seconds, and Terentyev was 2 minutes 9.8 seconds behind the leaders.

“I would like to apologize to the fans, especially to Bolshunov, for the fact that the race turned out like this today.

I am ashamed of myself that this is happening.

So far, there is not even a desire to train, ”the Championship quotes the skier.

However, even such a gap for the three-time Olympic champion was not very significant.

For 7.5 km, he played for almost a minute and could have risen even higher if not for an unfortunate fall.

Alexander stepped on his ski, lost his pace and lost precious time.

Meanwhile, the representative of Komi Semikov consistently bypassed Ardashev and Tiunov, and on the last lap he also got Belov, sending Ilya Poroshkin to the distance at the same time as Denis Spitsov.

“The guys set such an unrealistic pace on the first lap.

I am glad that we managed to catch up, and we are back in the game, ”said the 29-year-old skier immediately after the end of the stage.

Bolshunov, in turn, also overtook the hopelessly sagging Tiunov and replaced the fourth with a lag of 47.2 seconds.

Poroshkin and Spitsov, according to the latter, agreed at the start to work out the stage together, so they walked almost all 10 km toe to toe.

Only on the last lap, the champion of the Games in Beijing escaped and brought Maltsev 14 seconds of advantage over Evgeny Semyashkin on the shift.

But Ivan Gorbunov from Tatarstan, who followed them, noticeably sank in the second half of the distance and passed the baton to Anton Timashov with a delay of 64.8 seconds.

However, questions about the winner after the third transfer disappeared pretty quickly.

Maltsev joined the work without delay and began to build up the gap, taking advantage of the fact that Semyashkin does not tear his veins.

But the representative of Tatarstan, on the contrary, was not going to be content with bronze and rushed in pursuit of the leaders.

After the first lap, he reduced the gap from second place to half a minute, and after another three kilometers he bypassed the exhausted skier from Komi.

For Maltsev, meanwhile, the Russian flag was already being prepared at the stadium, with which the skier crossed the finish line.

According to Artyom, he always dreamed of winning this way, so he asked his friend to prepare the tricolor in advance if the race went well.

“We have a very strong team, thanks to the guys for the fight, everyone tried their best at their stages.

I also thank Alexei Chervotkin for working for our team at the first stage.

Belov is well done, Spetsov made a small gap, I supported him, ”said Maltsev on the air of Match TV.

Bolshunov's team eventually took only sixth place, and the athlete after the race criticized Terentyev for being too far behind in the first stage.

In his opinion, the partner was not serious about the relay and did not give it his all.

The coach Yuri Borodavko was also dissatisfied with Alexander's performance.

“The relay race was very interesting for us and for me in particular.

It is not very pleasant that Terentiev failed quite badly at the first stage.

Bolshunov rushed to win back, played, of course, but not as much as we would like.

This is where the strength of the team comes into play.

Tyumen had the most even line-up, and they deservedly won, ”said the specialist.