“A real relay athlete”: Stepanova played 50 seconds and brought gold to the Arkhangelsk region at the Spartakiad

On Tuesday, February 13, the skiers at the Spartakiad were supposed to rest, but the weather made its own adjustments: the FLGR decided to postpone the relay races from Thursday, since severe frosts were expected in Tyumen on that day. 

The girls were the first to start. Moreover, due to the equalization of distances, the athletes had to overcome not the usual 5 km, but 7.5 km. After the first round, the top five formed, which included Evgenia Krupitskaya (St. Petersburg), Daria Nepryaeva (Republic of Tatarstan), Alena Baranova (Moscow), Alisa Zhambalova (Tyumen Region) and Daria Kaneva (Komi Republic).

At the same time, Alina Pekletsova unexpectedly lagged behind the group of leaders. And the further it went, the greater the loss of the representative of the Arkhangelsk region became. She passed the baton 48 seconds from first place, also letting Anastasia Klepikova (KhMAO - Yugra) go ahead. She also couldn’t cope a little with the agility of Baranova’s rivals. The peloton moved away from her by 18.9 seconds.

At the second stage, the four strongest turned into a duet. According to its results, Lidia Gorbunova and Olga Tsareva, representing Tatarstan and the Komi Republic, managed to create a 10-second lead over the team of the Tyumen region, for which Tatyana Sorina ran. The Olympic champion had just returned from maternity leave, and even this result could be considered successful for her.

Anastasia Faleeva failed to close the gap that formed after the Krupitskaya stage. Nor did Maria Istomina improve her team’s situation. The loss of the Arkhangelsk region team only grew - to 51.8 seconds.

At the third stage, which the athletes already skated, no significant changes occurred. Except that Ekaterina Smirnova joined the duet of Olga Vokueva and Victoria Troshina. Anastasia Prokofieva and Svetlana Zaborskaya were 51 seconds behind them. It should be noted that the latter is not part of the ski elite, and at the Spartakiad in the first spirit races she took 21st and 48th places, so for her maintaining the gap from the leaders was already a blessing.

It seemed that the teams from Komi, Tyumen and Tatarstan would distribute the relay medals, but Veronika Stepanova was the last to run for the Arkhangelsk region. The Olympic champion immediately began working to the maximum of her capabilities and during the first round significantly reduced the gap from the leaders. She already saw her rivals at the stadium, and by the 4.95 km mark she caught up with the top three, which included Elizaveta Pantrina, Anastasia Dotsenko and Olesya Lyashenko. 

As Istomina noted after the race, the girls began to play with each other, forgetting that they were being pursued by such a dangerous rival.  

“When Veronica left for her stage, I understood that it was realistic for her to gain 50 seconds for 7.5 km. Again, I thought that if the leading girls started having a cat-and-mouse game, Veronica would take advantage of it. She did just that. Veronica had a great time in her stage. I don't know how they felt. Judging by the technique and the time they showed, I got the impression that they began to flirt with each other,” Match TV quoted the skier as saying.

Stepanova, in turn, abandoned the tactical fight. After catching her breath a little behind the girls’ backs, she made another acceleration and easily escaped her competitors. However, not one of them was able to support the Olympic champion’s breakthrough. At the finish, Veronica beat her closest rival by 20 seconds.

“I see, I’ve taught you to have bright finishes, it’s very cool. From the very start, I believed that I would be able to catch up, and everything worked out. I was surprised that the girls did not resist, I ran away from them. Everyone was surprised at the finish line, the girls did not immediately come to meet me, but they greeted me warmly, I was very pleased with the race,” said Stepanova.

In the end, Pantrina (Tyumen Region) won silver, Dotsenko (Republic of Tatarstan) rounded out the top three. 

“The fact that Veronica can win more than a minute is quite expected. I think the girls in front went to their strengths, but you still can’t jump over your head. I want to say that Veronica is a real relay racer. This was clear even when no one knew about her. It’s great that the athlete gives his all while competing for the team,” said the head of the FLGR, Elena Vyalbe.

Before the start of the men's race in Tyumen, it began to snow, which made some adjustments. At the first stage, there were no significant gaps like among the girls. A large group of seven people formed. Alexey Shemyakin from the Arkhangelsk region was a little behind them, but Savely Korostelev, to whom the athlete passed the baton, quickly caught up with the leading peloton. In it, the pace was set by Ermil Vokuev, whose speed not everyone could withstand. Besides Korostelev, only Sergei Ardashev and Evgeniy Belov managed it.

On the second lap, Savely tried to run away from his rivals, but the representative of the Komi Republic managed to stay behind him, and at the finish he also broke away a little from his opponent. Vokuev passed the baton with a lead of 4.3 seconds. However, teams from Tyumen and Tatarstan were very close.

At the third stage, the Arkhangelsk region was represented by Dmitry Goroshnikov, who took only 77th place in the last race at the Spartakiad. Therefore, already from the first meters of the distance, he began to lag significantly behind Denis Spitsov, Anton Timashov and Ilya Poroshkin and eventually lost to his opponents for more than three minutes. So Alexander Bolshunov, unlike Stepanova, was no longer able to create a miracle. San Sanych showed the best time in his stage, but for the first time in the season he was left without a medal. 

At the same time, Spitsov, who had won silver the day before, understood that it was necessary to make the maximum gap from the Arkhangelsk region, so he immediately increased the pace. He made Bolshunov’s task more difficult. However, it was not possible to escape much from the closest pursuers. Denis passed the baton 12 seconds from Poroshkin and 16 seconds from Timashov.

At the last stage, Artyom Maltsev ran for Tyumen, Ivan Gorbunov and Ilya Semikov caught up with him. And the pursuers succeeded: on the second lap they found themselves behind the world championship silver medalist, who found it more difficult to walk alone on a broken track. 

As a result, the winner of the race was determined at the finish line. Unfortunately for his team, Maltsev positioned himself behind his opponents when entering the final straight and did not find an opening to attack. Semikov jumped out from behind Gorbunov, but Ivan was not going to give up. With a sprint burst, he brought gold to the Tatarstan team.

At the same time, according to the athletes, the results of the relay race were influenced by the length of the distance. If for girls it increased, then for men, on the contrary, the stage was reduced from 10 to 7.5 km.

“I don’t remember when our region won the men’s relay. There was nothing unusual about the race. A distance of 7.5 km is not enough for men. On the third lap I noticed that people were starting to pour out, but with the fourth it would have been different. 7.5 km is not the same,” admitted Andrei Larkov, who ran for the Tatarstan team in the first stage.