Following the skiing “Race of Stars”, similar biathlon competitions were held at Luzhniki. The fans were treated to a relay race, in which each participant had to complete two laps and work on two firing lines, and the duets consisted of retired professionals in this sport and those who had never taken to the ski track with a rifle before. However, we didn’t have to do this during the show run either. For greater safety, the organizers decided to place weapons at the shooting range.
Cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky, track and field athlete Yuri Borzakovsky, actress Elena Zakharova, lead singer of the group “Ivanushki International” Kirill Andreev and many others appeared on the track on Sunday. A total of 12 couples took part in the Race of Stars.
In the first semi-final, three-time world champion Ivan Tcherezov took the lead after prone, 8.6 seconds ahead of Ekaterina Yurlova-Perkht. By the second shooting, the biathlete caught up with her opponent and, having covered all the targets, the leader left to pass the relay. Yurlova-Perkht sent the head of the Moscow sports department, Alexey Kondarantsev, to the distance, and Tcherezov, with a lag of only 0.4 seconds, passed the baton to the presenter Emma Gadzhieva. However, the functionary quickly broke away from the former figure skater.
On the stand, Kondarantsev made three mistakes. However, he confidently took first place with a three-minute advantage over his closest pursuers. And for the second line there was a serious struggle between actor Nikita Manets and general producer of Match TV Dmitry Ryzhkov.
The representative of the federal channel walked ahead, but a few meters before the finish he got tangled in his skis and fell. The same thing happened to the young man, but he used a cunning tactical move. Instead of trying to stand up, the artist crawled across the ribbon and brought silver to his team, which also included Natalya Sorokina. However, Ryzhkov and Belarusian Olga Nazarova also advanced to the next round.
“Professional wrestling
(laughs).
I had to crawl too. Excitement hits closer to the finish line. Dmitry Guberniev also began to speak at the wrong moment. Have we reached the finals? Not this,” joked the general producer of Match TV at the finish line.
In the second qualifying race, Dmitry Malyshko took the lead among biathlon veterans: he beat Andrei Makoveev by 15.3 seconds when passing the baton to Svetlana Zhurova. The Olympic champion in speed skating showed that she can run just as well on skis. And during shooting, she only had problems in the standing position, where Zhurova made four misses. However, her pursuer Nika Zhukova, the daughter of the lead singer of the group “Hands Up,” missed one more time, so the State Duma deputy finished in splendid isolation. The last place in the final went to Yulia Makarova and oncologist surgeon Igor Khatkov.
Olga Zaitseva, who together with Yuri Borzakovsky took only fifth place in the semifinals, was very upset after the start.
“I’m a little embarrassed in front of my partner. He ran well, he says he could have run again. I feel tired after yesterday, I did a good job with shooting, but at the last line two misses is too much. It’s hard now, but our semi-final was crazy: Petukhov, Malyshko, Makoveev. They rushed, and we were behind. They thought that the partners would not be able to cope, they tried to make a groundwork, but the partners turned out to be great, and this is the result. The goal was to shoot well, I coped with the prone position, but I let Yura down in the standing position,” said Zaitseva.
In the decisive race, a fierce struggle unfolded between the two semi-final winners, as well as the duet of Makoveev and Zhukova. Dmitry Malyshko was the first to finish his stage and sent the Olympic champion to the ski track. Makoveev passed the baton second with a miss in the standing position, and Yurlova-Perkht with a zero on the shooting range remained third, 19.8 seconds behind the leader.
However, Kondarantsev looked great on the track on Sunday, so he caught up with Zhurova and Zhukova by the prone stage, and then easily ran away from them. Even two misses on the stand did not prevent him from winning. In addition, the girls did not cope with the last shooting, failing to cover three targets each. And on the ski track, the Olympic champion looked noticeably stronger, bringing silver to her team.
“This year I completely changed my technique. A week ago I realized that I need to learn to speed skate. I tried: first I drove 100 meters, then 200, 500, a kilometer and then everything went from there. Therefore, today there is a result - second place, which I am very happy about,” said Zhurova.
However, Nika Zhukova was not very upset about third place. As the race participant admitted, she had problems breathing on the first lap.
“The only thing I dreamed of was to fall, breathe for a couple of minutes, get up and calmly move on. But it didn’t work out that way because we had a race. After the semi-final I sat here, out of breath. I think: “Mom, tell me I refuse.” But I thought it was terrible, ugly, because you are running in pairs and letting your partner down. I stood up, tried my best, came third - a good result,” Zhukova said.
At the same time, Makoveev highly appreciated the strong-willed qualities of his partner, who was not at a loss in a difficult situation and performed with dignity.
“Nika and I worked out how to pass the baton and how she should start moving. We discussed how she would shoot. She shoots perfectly while lying down; shooting while standing is difficult; we thought we needed to shoot quickly. I'm proud of Nika. I made it easier for her... Before the final race, we lost our skis and poles,” the biathlete admitted.
The 41-year-old athlete also jokingly agreed to enter the mixed singles of the Russian Cup.
“I can do it, I keep in shape, I try to prepare. “Race of Stars” is an interesting competition, I’ve been participating for the third year now. It’s great when you can join mass sports and communicate with interesting people,” added Makoveev.