This year's biathlon Spartakiad is being hosted by Zlatoust. On Saturday there was frost in the region: the thermometer dropped to minus 17°C. At the same time, it was quite windy at the shooting range, so the men's sprint was unpredictable at first. Although there were already experienced athletes in the first group: Matvey Eliseev, Ilnur Mukhamedzyanov, Dmitry Lazovsky, only a few managed to close all the targets.
However, the spectators did not see all the leaders in the starting protocol: Alexander Povarnitsyn and Anton Babikov missed the start. The three biathletes training together this year according to an individual plan were represented only by Alexander Loginov. Alas, he could not avoid mistakes on the shooting range: three mistakes and not the highest speed at the distance threw him into 13th place with a lag of 1 minute 48.2 seconds.
The first to make a serious bid for victory in the sprint was Maxim Tsvetkov. The Olympic bronze medalist once again showed his class in shooting and, having covered all targets, finished with the best time. True, the athlete entered the race only 32nd out of 85 participants, so the representative of St. Petersburg did not manage to stay in first place for long.
Kirill Bazhin, who was following him, also worked confidently on the firing lines. He ran the distance at approximately the same speed as Tsvetkov. However, on the last lap, Mikhail Shashilov’s team managed to improve and beat Maxim by 17.2 seconds.
The fast Eduard Latypov and Daniil Serokhvostov started in the last group. Both failed to avoid mistakes, making one mistake. The Olympic bronze medalist traditionally failed to cope with the stand. However, this time he paused before the fourth shot, not the fifth. And it was after that that I didn’t get in. His younger opponent, on the contrary, missed one target on prone.
But even with this result at the shooting range, the biathletes claimed medals. Latypov went into the third lap with a gap of 6.0 seconds over Bazhin, and Serokhvostov was 10.1 behind. It should be noted that Eduard’s last kilometers were not as strong as the start of the race. Nevertheless, he managed to strengthen his advantage and win gold at the Spartakiad. As the athlete admitted at the end of the sprint, he sets himself the task of winning in every event of the program.
“This is the main start of the season, for which we deliberately prepared. It's nice to start with a win. Now I want to continue in the same spirit... The plan is simple - work for first place in every race. The shape is good, performance is also good. I hope things continue to get better and better. The track is specific, you need to constantly work on it, there is almost no place to rest. The weather today is not easy, the wind was gusty in places, but it was working. I took aim,” Latypov was quoted as saying by “Championship.”
In the end, Serokhvostov was unable to catch up with Bazhin. At the finish it was 6.9 seconds. However, this was enough to get into the top three. Tsvetkov remained only fifth. He was also overtaken by Karim Khalili, who started 82nd. However, Maxim was pleased with his performance.
“We were preparing for the fact that it would be quite cool and windy, but even judging by the Olympics in Beijing, this is probably my weather, when the wind is at its peak and we need to cope with zero. Therefore, today everything worked out, the best result for me this year - I’m very happy about it,” Tsvetkov said on Match TV.
At the same time, Khalili could have ended up a line higher. The Moscow representative made a mistake on the counter. But he left for the last lap at the same time as Serokhvostov: Daniil beat his opponent on the track in only 4.4 seconds.
"Today was a hard day. They told me I showed my best legs, but I gave it my best. The track should be fast, because of the frost it was difficult. I’m going to run everything here,” Serokhvostov noted.
For the girls, the sprint also became a real test due to the gusty wind, which not everyone could cope with: Ekaterina Noskova, Natalia Shevchenko, Tamara Derbusheva, Kristina Reztsova missed twice each, Anastasia Shevchenko and Ekaterina Kaplina - three times, and Irina Kazakevich did not miss at all. hit four targets. As a result, they settled closely behind each other, starting from ninth place.
Nevertheless, just like men, there were female athletes who coped with the vagaries of nature. The reference point for the rest was the performance of Victoria Slivko. The biathlete entered the start line wearing number 28 and immediately made a mistake on the bench, but on the stand-up the representative of Tyumen worked flawlessly and at the finish showed a result that remained the best for a long time.
It was stormed by young Yulia Sheller and Anastasia Zyryanova, who cleared all targets. But the girls still have to work on their speed over the distance. In this component, they were significantly inferior to 29-year-old Slivko, who, by the way, is not considered a very fast skier, like, say, Kazakevich. Both girls had a slight advantage over their opponent after the stand, and then lost it all.
At first, Anastasia Goreeva walked on the same footing as Victoria. She was also unable to perform cleanly on the lines, making one mistake, but she left for the last lap with the same time as the leader. It would seem that the Moscow representative was in a more advantageous position, since the coaches guided her based on her opponent’s results, but she was still unable to get past Slivko. Her lag in the end was only 1.6 seconds.
As it turned out, a lot was decided by the long kilometer-long climb before the finish, which not everyone could cope with.
“This is a very difficult track. During the entire circle you rest for about a minute, the rest of the time you have to work. Very difficult leaving the climb, leaving the line, approaching the line. This route is really very difficult. It was very difficult for me. We were getting ready for the Spartakiad, I hoped to be in good shape here, but today it was quite difficult for me to run, and there was also such a difficult wind today,” Goreeva admitted.
Well, the main sensation on Saturday was created by Anastasia Batmanova, who this season has never been in the top three at the stages of the Russian and Commonwealth Cup. Vasily Tomshina's wife started the race confidently and after the first shooting was in the group of leaders, and after the second “zero” she ended up first in the intermediate protocol with an advantage of 12.4 seconds over Slivko. And unlike the others, she managed to endure until the end. Her separation from Victoria was melting before our eyes. However, she still held on for 3.5 seconds and won her first gold this season.
“As usual: we train somewhere in plus, minus one, we come to Sochi and admire the weather. And as soon as the starts come, some kind of apocalypse begins - the wind is unreal, you almost go to breakfast - an icicle will fall on you. It's a joke. I'm very happy to do my job and that the girls made a mistake today, so I'm taller. I was 100% lucky at the shooting range - judging by the men's race. It’s with the stand that I can work while lying down, but with the stand it’s an unpredictable thing,” Batmanova admitted at the end of the sprint.