Biathletes presented fans with an exciting spectacle in the single mixed relay at the Russian Championships. Among the favorites of this race were last year's winners - St. Petersburg ekaterina Yurlova-Perkht and Maxim Tsvetkov, as well as silver medalists from Tyumen - Victoria Slivko and Evgeny Garanichev. A strong duo of Evgenia Burtasova and Daniil Serokhvostov was picked up in the team of the Novosibirsk region, in addition, representatives of the Sverdlovsk region Irina Kazakevich and Kirill Bazhin could join the fight for medals.
On the day of the mixed relays in Khanty-Mansiysk, the weather was almost ideal for biathlon, but the intense nature of the race left its mark on the shooting. As Anton Babikov noted, risk on the firing line is a distinctive feature of a single relay, where the circle is only 1.5 km.
A significant bid for victory after the first shooting was made by Slivko and Yurlova-Percht, who quickly closed all the targets and went to the distance at the same time. But on the rack, Victoria made two misfires and was forced to use additional cartridges. As she explained later, due to the complex approach to the shooting range, many athletes begin tremor at the most inopportune moment, which is why such mistakes occur.
Yurlova-Percht managed to cope with this problem: she was again flawless at the line, providing her partner on the pass with an advantage of 19 seconds. However, Tsvetkov could not keep this gap throughout his stage. He dealt with the lying down in six shots, but on the rack he missed twice and took longer. According to Maxim, nerves played a role in his case.
"When there is no one behind, you have a handicap, psychology does its job, it's hard to shoot," the athlete admitted.
As a result, the race was headed by the Tyumen duo, which was not inferior to the leadership until the very finish. However, not without a dramatic plot at the final stage. Garanichev confidently coped with the lie and on all pairs, having more than 50 seconds of advantage in reserve, raced to the gold medal, but did not close the fifth target, shooting standing. He could not do it with the first additional cartridge, after which the athlete seemed to be completely confused.
Biathlon fans, of course, remembered at this moment the mixed relay at the stage of the 2014 World Cup in Ostersund, when Evgeny did not dare to make the last shot for a minute and a half, after which, in case of a miss, he had to go for a lap. During this time, he even managed to squat to stretch his muscles, and eventually missed all chances for the podium.
Fortunately, there was no repetition of this situation in Hunts. By the time the pursuers arrived at the shooting range, the Tyumen biathlete one by one sent two more spare cartridges into the milk - and ran to work out the fine.
Shoot at this point a little more accurately than the Greytails, a struggle for victory could have unfolded between them, but Daniel missed three times. But Tsvetkov was accurate, providing himself and Yurlova-Percht with a silver award.
"I am very happy with the second place, the atmosphere, the fans. I waited all year for this discipline, so I could not leave without a medal, "the 38-year-old biathlete admitted with a smile after the award ceremony.
In turn, Garanichev said that he and Slivko really wanted to repeat their December success at the Russian Cup stage, even though in the current race, in his opinion, the competition was higher.
"I'm happy with the race, only the last line I'm not happy. It's excitement, of course. I realized that Maxim Tsvetkov and Danya Serokhvostov were far behind, and I did not finish the last shooting. I tried to just run away as quickly as possible, I wanted to keep the advantage - this ruined me, "said Evgeny.
Much attention before and after the race was riveted to the duet of father and daughter Yuri and Anastasia Batmanov. 45-year-old "Papa Yura", as biathletes call him among themselves, became the oldest participant of the Russian championship. Last year, the family duo also took part in the national championship, but could not finish, as the leaders overtook them by a lap. This time, the biathletes set themselves the goal of completing the race and even exceeded the plan: they took 14th place out of 26 starting teams.
"We are always ready to fight, regardless of the state. I think this should be a trait of any athlete. The task today was so that we would not be removed, but we planned the tenth place for next year. That's progress. I am glad that I managed to fulfill my daughter's dream and finish in this race," Batmanov emphasized.
The mixed relay, which also took place on this day, also turned out to be bright. The favorite of the race was the local team Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug-Yugra-1, which included Elizaveta Kaplina, Ekaterina Noskova, Pyotr Pashchenko and Nikita Porshnev. The national team of Belarus, led by Dinara and Anton Smolsky, had great hopes for gold, but Daria Kudaeva failed the starting stage, going to two penalty laps, and actually deprived her partners of the opportunity to fight for medals.
And the top four from the Moscow region quite unexpectedly broke out thanks to the brilliant work at the first three stages of Polina Shevnina, Anastasia Goreeva and Kirill Streltsov. They spent only four additional rounds on six firing lines and brought their finisher Mikhail Pervushin a gap of 48.1 seconds. The fate of gold was entirely in his hands. The 24-year-old coped with the lying down, but failed the rack completely, earning an extra 300 meters of distance.
This did not fail to take advantage of the pursuers. Yugra resident Porshnev, who at this championship has already won the sprint and became the second in the pursuit race, shot standing without misses and confidently led the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug-Yugra-1 team to victory. Silver went to the team of the Tyumen region, and bronze - Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug-Yugra-2. Athletes from the Moscow region eventually stopped one step away from the podium, finishing after the Belarusians.
"Pervushin did not live up to expectations. Still, we thought he could handle the rack. The leaders of the team of the Moscow region decided who to put on the fourth stage, and now they did not guess. It's a pity, I wanted to see new champions, "commented on the results of the race, two-time Olympic champion Dmitry Vasilyev.
Ugra athletes were happy to win on the home track and thanked the fans for their support.
"This is the most important start of the season, and we prepared for it especially, especially since it takes place at home. We have to perform well here. Someone's victory is always someone's defeat. Today it turned out like this," Porshnev said.
Pashchenko separately highlighted Nikita's contribution to this gold award. According to him, the quartet as a whole did not show its maximum, but it was saved by the undisputed leader.
"Nikita today deserved me to bring him a good head start and give him a rest for the next races, but unfortunately, I did not succeed. But he once again gave the team his reliable friendly shoulder and pulled us out," the biathlete concluded.