Speed skating battles
On the seventh and eighth days of the Spartakiad, six sets of awards in speed skating were played, and three-time winners of the tournament arrived in the regiment. Alexandra Sayutina added the highest standard award to her gold medal in the 3000 m in a race half as long, and also won in the six-lap team race as part of the Moscow team. In addition, she also added a silver award to her treasury in the “thousand” category, where she lost to Daria Kachanova.
The daughter of Lillehammer Olympic champion, speed skater Svetlana Bazhanova and world championship medalist Vadim Sayutin admitted that her parents made a significant contribution to her high results.
“It helps that I have the same genetics. My parents, from their point of view, can tell me a lot... Plus, my dad has a lot of experience in his coaching career, which I’m very happy about, I trust him completely. This does not allow me to doubt my preparation and technical performance,” TASS quotes the athlete.
However, according to Alexandra, she did not expect such a number of victories, because the level of competition is quite high.
“The girls are competitive - Katya Kosheleva, Liza Agafoshina, and Lina Golikova. Quite strong rivals that are difficult to fight,” she noted.
Daria Kachanova, meanwhile, won two gold and a silver medals, which earned her special praise from Olga Fatkulina. The silver medalist of the 2014 Games was never able to get on the podium, but still took the past tournament as an asset.
“I wanted to please the younger generation, but judging by how I started the season and what the gap was between Daria Kachanova and me, I think that I performed absolutely super. At the beginning of the season there was a four second lag at 1 thousand meters, now it’s two. Overall, I’m proud of myself,” TASS quotes the athlete as saying.
Meanwhile, Ekaterina Aldoshkina still added a speed skating award to her three victories in short track speed skating. She became the bronze medalist of the team race as part of a trio from the Chelyabinsk region. It is interesting that in a similar discipline for men, Catherine’s husband, Daniil Aldoshkin, celebrated victory. Also on the Moscow region team that became the champion were Ruslan Zakharov and Daniil Chmutov.
Eight-time world champion Pavel Kulizhnikov did not disappoint the fans gathered in the stands of the Ural Lightning. Although he complained about problems with motivation, he won both disciplines in which he participated - 500 and 1000 m. The skater does not plan to compete anymore this season.
“For me, this is the most important start of this season, because there is at least some financial support. This is very important, because it is difficult for a person who has already gone through “from A to Z” to speak out for nothing. That’s why I got in shape for these performances,” said Pavel.
But if Kulizhnikov’s triumph was expected, then Danil Smirnov’s victory in the men’s 1500 m distance became a kind of sensation. He beat the silver medalist of the 2022 Olympic Games in the team race, Sergei Trofimov, and brought the Kirov region team the first gold medal of the Spartakiad. As Nikolai Gulyaev, president of the Russian Skating Union, said, in the region Smirnov has quite difficult conditions for training - there is no artificial ice or an indoor skating rink.
“Nevertheless, as I said, Russian soil has given birth and will continue to give birth to talent, and our task is to help them with this,” TASS quotes the functionary.
Ski junction
An exciting story unfolded on Friday in Nordic combined, where athletes compete in ski jumping and the 10 km cross-country ski race. After the first part of the competition, Vladimir Malov took the lead, flying 122 m. Artyom Galunin, who had previously won gold at the Spartakiad in another discipline, was second, and David Ibragimov closed the top three. However, on the track, all three were powerless in front of Samir Mastiev, who went into the distance with a lag of 1 minute 20 seconds from Malov. The Ekaterinburg biathlete not only overtook his opponents, but also at the finish brought 56.9 seconds to Galunin, who eventually won silver. Bronze went to Malov.
Meanwhile, these days, an important event occurred among flying skiers: the legend of this sport, silver medalist of the Beijing Olympics, medalist and winner of the World Cup stages, Irina Avvakumova, announced her retirement from the sport. She put an end to her career on a positive note, winning bronze medals in team competitions as part of the Moscow region team.
“I think now is the right time. Good start, good jumps. How is this decision made? Hard. You live your whole life in sports and it’s hard to imagine what will happen next. But I think it's time. The way must be given to the young. I don’t yet know what I will do next, while I want to relax and spend more time with my family,” said the 32-year-old athlete.
Olympic newcomer
As you know, the Russian Spartakiad is being held according to the program of the 2026 Olympic Games, which means it also features a completely new sport that will debut in Milan - ski mountaineering or skimo. These competitions include skiing uphill, downhill skiing and using mountaineering skills to overcome difficult terrain.
The first World Ski Mountaineering Championships took place in 2002 and have been held every two years since then. In addition, there is the World Cup, which takes place every year and includes at least five stages. Russian athletes, as in many other sports, are not allowed to compete after February 2022 - even in a neutral status - therefore they improve their skills exclusively at domestic tournaments.
The first gold medal of the Spartakiad in a discipline little known to the general public was won by Nikita Filippov, a real star of this sport. By the age of 21, the native of the Kamchatka Territory had already won two dozen Russian champion titles and did not let competitors get close to him. And Nikita began his sports career in biathlon - and even became the champion of the region. But then I changed my specialization.
“At that time in Kamchatka it was difficult to make a serious career in biathlon. I won regional championships, but there were practically no trips to other regions, and no funding either. And it was at that moment, in 2017, that the coach of the Kamchatka Territory ski mountaineering team, Larisa Anatolyevna Soboleva, suggested that I go to the World Championships and compete there among youth. Naturally, I agreed, and this spurred me on to practice ski mountaineering more diligently - the prospects of traveling to different cities and countries attracted me,” the athlete said in an interview.
Now his dream is to compete at the Games in Milan.
Among women in the skimo sprint, 19-year-old Daria Zinchenko excelled, who only in January became the national champion in the vertical race discipline for the first time. And the Olympic climbers still have relay races ahead.