The last stage of the Commonwealth Cup ended on Sunday with mass starts.
In men, all attention was focused on the confrontation between Daniil Serokhvostov and Eduard Latypov.
In the absence of the sick Belarusian Anton Smolsky, it was this duet that looked stronger than the others on the ski track, and the bronze medalist of the Tokyo Olympics won five victories in a row in the tournament.
However, the expectations of the fans collapsed on the first lap.
There was a fall at the entrance to the stadium: Serokhvostov and Kirill Bazhin were on the snow.
Athletes managed to get up and continue the performance.
But as it turned out later, this incident became fatal for Daniel.
He broke his rifle and just couldn't fire on the firing line.
Moreover, the biathletes did not fully understand how exactly the collision occurred.
According to Serokhvostov, he calmly ran after Latypov and did not reorganize anywhere.
“I saw with peripheral vision that someone was driving on the left.
I followed Edik, started to turn on the descent, and Kirill rode very close to me - I don’t know why.
A second and I'm already wallowing.
I don't remember well, I was driving and fell.
The state of health is excellent, the weapon is intact, the stock also seems to be intact.
The belt fell off and all the clips broke, the cartridges fell out.
It's a shame, what else can I say?
I could fight today, I was ready, my health allowed, ”the athlete lamented.
Bazhin, who nevertheless continued his speech, has a different version of what happened.
According to Cyril, the fall happened because of Daniel.
“Serokhvostov says that I am to blame?
I think everyone has their own truth.
I had a good speed, and I began to go around everyone.
And Danya at that moment began to bypass Edik.
And when he started stepping over with his left foot, he cut me off, knocked out the skis, and I just flew straight ahead, ”said the athlete.
However, even in the absence of Serokhvostov, Latypov made his fans nervous.
After a perfect first prone, he made two misses in the second and found himself in the role of catching up.
The biathlete was 27.2 seconds behind Roman Eremin.
However, already after the first standing, where he traditionally missed once, Eduard managed to improve his position.
The biathletes themselves helped him in this: Yeremin made a mistake twice, the Belarusian Matvey Vorobey, who was second, was alone.
As a result, the leader of the national team left the stadium fourth, 15 seconds after Anton Babikov, who shot perfectly, after Nikita Porshnev and Nikita Lobastov.
On the track in Tyumen, Latypov has practically no equal, so he easily caught up with his rivals and was the first to roll out to the stadium.
And then it remained only to cope with oneself and not to make mistakes.
To the delight of the coaches, the athlete completed the task and hit all the targets, even the “unloved” last one.
At this point, the question of the winner had already been decided.
Eduard alone ran to the last lap with an advantage over his pursuers in 30 seconds.
Babikov and Porshnev, who did not expect such accuracy from Latypov, became nervous and simultaneously made a mistake once.
And Eremin, who got Lobastov on the track, worked cleanly on the rack, like the Belarusian.
As a result, it was Nikita and Roman who shared the second and third places among themselves.
However, there was no serious fight on the track.
The Russian quickly left the opponent and even tried to ruffle the nerves of Eduard, but he controlled the situation.
“I was told that Eremin was approaching on the last lap, but I did not try to twitch much.
Only on the last climb I already gave out in a normal way, in order to comfortably approach the finish line.
Victories do not relax, but rather motivate.
We must try to progress in any case, there is work, there is something to strive for.
God forbid, someday we will get to international competitions, and there the competition is much higher.
And there, in general, you can’t give up slack, you need to keep yourself in good shape in order to compete with the best athletes in the world at the World Cup.
I think now we could fight for the top 3 in the World Cup.
This is quite real, ”said the biathlete.
The women's mass start turned out to be more unpredictable, because Dinara Alimbekova-Smolskaya arrived in Tyumen not in the best physical condition.
In the pursuit race on the last lap, she lost a lot to the winner Anastasia Shevchenko.
And this time, she hardly kept in the group of leaders, eventually finishing sixth.
Almost created a sensation 38-year-old Ekaterina Yurlova-Perkht.
The world champion missed last season and the competition in Tyumen was the first big pause.
So far, she is inferior to younger and more daring biathletes, but thanks to her good shooting in the mass start, she claimed a medal right up to the last firing line.
The first half of the race revealed a group of leaders.
Tamara Derbusheva left for the third round after the second prone with a slight advantage over Natalya Gerbulova, and four more athletes were walking 17 seconds from them.
Much of the girls have traditionally decided on the first rack.
It was ideally carried out by only two - Anastasia Goreeva and Yurlova-Perkht.
This allowed the athletes to leave the shooting range with a gap of 25 seconds from their pursuers.
However, the 28-year-old native of Pavlovsky Posad did not stick together with the world champion and managed to create a decent advantage for herself, both from Catherine and from the rest of the biathletes.
Gerbulova, who led the chase, was almost 50 seconds behind the leader.
This escape and decided the outcome of the race.
At the last firing line, Goreeva made a mistake once, but the reserve created was enough for her to keep the first place, since she missed Yurlova-Perkht twice.
And the other athletes were already too far behind, so even with flawless shooting, Gerbulova lost 17 seconds to the leader.
“It seems that the mass start is now my favorite discipline.
In my opinion, in all the races I was in prizes or flowers for sure.
I'm glad that we managed to win today.
First miss on the counter?
I hastened this.
I’m glad that I didn’t give up, continued to concentrate, and worked cleanly,” Goreeva said.
Once again, Noskova gave out a phenomenal last lap on the track, she left the stadium sixth with a lag of 44.9 seconds, but easily outperformed three rivals who, by the way, are also very strong on the track - Irina Kazakevich, Derbusheva and Alimbekova-Smolskaya.
As a result, Ekaterina has the second bronze medal in a row after gold in the sprint.
“I overtook the girls and the coaches led me very much: come on, run away, they are all close, they are still fighting.
I just lost my concentration on the last climb - everyone is screaming.
It was a very interesting race, I came to the last frontier 11th, but that's what zero does, ”said Noskova.
In the overall standings of the Commonwealth Cup for women, Alimbekova-Smolskaya, who had a huge advantage over the Russians, expectedly won.
And it was possible to get around the Belarusian if she, like her husband, had not gone to the start in Tyumen.
The second was Victoria Slivko, the third - Kazakevich.
Meanwhile, the leadership of the Russian Biathlon Union is already planning a calendar for the next season.
So far, according to the head of the RRF, Viktor Maigurov, competitions on the territory of the Russian Federation and Belarus are being considered.
“There is no inside information about him.
Let's try to make it balanced.
And what is very important, in the spring we will coordinate it with the broadcasters on the time of broadcasts, which has never happened before.
We decided to do it six months earlier.
Single calendar with Belarus?
In fact, we are discussing something similar.
Maybe we'll do that.
There is also a wild and crazy idea to end the season in Kamchatka,” Maygurov said.