“On the slopes, Sasha simply has no equal”: Sorin about Bolshunov’s landing, Korostelev’s bad luck and Faleeva’s superiority

— Faleeva’s victory is not the most predictable result, don’t you think?

“Nastya was really in the shadows for some time. When I first took over the team after the Games in Pyeongchang, it was considered a strong classicist who ran sprints and short races well. As a junior, she successfully ran the first stages of relay races, but anything more than an “A” did not work out very well. But after the first year of work, Faleeva began to prove herself. Moreover, it’s so good that in the 2020/21 season she was even taken to the Tour de Ski, despite the fact that the athlete herself was, to put it mildly, not ready for this.

Now Nastya is already able to fight for top three in classic distance races, and stability has come in sprint races. Last year, Faleeva was second after Natalya Nepryaeva (Terentyeva); at Champion Heights, everything also went towards her finishing second, but there Nastya broke two poles and was eliminated in the semifinals. And at the Russian Championships I didn’t start in the classic sprint - I got sick on the eve of the competition.

— Judging by the results of the current season, Faleeva continues to improve.

- Yes, we managed to add it. In Tyumen, Nastya and Veronica showed very high speeds.

— Is it natural for you, as a coach, to place students on the pedestal?

“There’s definitely no surprise in this.” Faleeva is stronger than Stepanova in the classic sprint, much more powerful. I would even say that in her current state she would be able to perform very well in the World Cup. But for Veronica, the classic sprint is the least favorite and most difficult discipline. She would be able to overtake Nastya only if she made a mistake or could not withstand the psychological onslaught. Therefore, I think Stepanova tried not just to pursue Nastya, but constantly walked in parallel, increasing pressure in anticipation of a final showdown.

— In other words, you went to the start line counting on random luck?

— Veronica, to be honest, didn’t want to run this race at all. But I insisted. He explained that she is the only one who can impose a real fight on Faleeva. What if Nastya wins without any resistance from her opponents at all, it will be uninteresting to everyone and, above all, to the audience. So Veronica is just great. One can, of course, say that she was a little unlucky to be in the faster first semi-final, but Faleeva was just as “unlucky” to run the second semi-final and go to the final start with almost no rest.

— Based on the results of the men's sprint race, I got the impression that Sergei Ustyugov gave so much effort in the quarterfinals, where he ran side by side with Alexander Bolshunov, that he simply did not have enough strength for the next two starts.

- I agree. It is clear that Sergei is not in the right condition right now. At least it was clear to me that there wouldn’t be enough for the final. He ran the semi-final very hard, caught fourth, was 0.3 ahead of Savely (Korosteleva - RT) in time and knocked him out of the final. I would even say that Korostelev was simply unlucky: it would have been more natural if he had made it to the finals, and not Ustyugov. But sprint is such a lottery thing. That's why many people don't like him.

In order to count on success, you must have not only strength, but also a certain amount of luck. Well, or you just need to be head and shoulders above your rivals. Today we saw probably the tightest sprint of the season. Both in the prologue and in the races. The same Bolshunov was pretty squeezed in the quarterfinals. I think it was there that he realized that in the final it would be safer to run in front from the very beginning.

— According to Evgeny Dementyev, Bolshunov’s skis were perfectly prepared. Better than Ustyugov's.

- It's not just about skiing. Readiness can be judged by how a person moves and how he breathes. When an athlete is really strong, he will definitely try to give his best in the finals. He will resist and bite, but he definitely won’t sit back. You can only take a wait-and-see attitude if you have a crazy finishing acceleration. But such tactics have been out of use for a long time. Now whoever left the start first showed everyone that he feels good and will fight until victory.

— The way Bolshunov jumped ahead in the quarterfinals and semifinals before the final segment of the distance speaks of unlimited internal potential, or is this just a pre-thought-out part of the tactics?

— Rather, it speaks about the ability to navigate descents and, perhaps, even about an aerodynamic landing. In all the recent sprints, it was clear that Sasha simply has no equal on the descents. And it's not the skiing that's the issue here. They also once said about Johannes Klebo: they say that he has the best skis at the World Cup, so he beats everyone. Of course, it happens that one of the athletes’ skis in a particular race are so well prepared that the person beats everyone on the slopes. But this doesn't happen every day. In the case of Bolshunov, this is, first of all, a very big job. Above the landing as well. Taken together, this allows you to win back seconds wherever possible. My guys haven't been able to do this yet.

— Nevertheless, Sergei Ardashev finished second. Aren't you surprised too?

— Sergei is already an experienced comrade, from my first recruit, and he began to prove himself almost immediately after we started working together. He won prizes at the Russian Championships and won medals at youth world championships. It’s just that in those years it was believed that he was good only in classical disciplines, and primarily in sprinting, but this season, for example, we had a podium in the speed skating time trial. And this distance is the least specific for Ardashev.

As for the start in Tyumen, Sergey was among the favorites from the very beginning, since in all the classic sprints during the season he did not fall below third place. In December, here in Tyumen, he beat Alexander Terentyev, a week ago he took third place at the Russian Cup stage, losing to Korostelev in the final round. It’s a pity, of course, that Savely didn’t make it to the finals - he and Sergei could have had a nice fight there.

— It turns out that Savely in your group is perhaps the biggest loser of the first day?

- So far it’s working out that way. But the point is not that he approached the competition in some kind of inappropriate readiness. It's just bad luck. Judging by the way the semi-finals turned out, it was immediately clear that Korostelev needed to “stretch” his run as much as possible. But then he might not have had enough strength for the final, especially since he would be running the skiathlon the very next day. So, as a coach, I definitely don’t have any questions for Korostelev.