The long-awaited victory: Khalili won the mass start at the Spartakiad, the Sverdlovsk region won the women's relay

Triumph of the Sverdlovsk region

The next competitive day of the Strongest Biathlon Spartakiad was going to please the fans with two races at once. But if the girls were preparing to identify the strongest in the relay, then the men had to run the race from a general start. And unfortunately for many, there was no place in it for Matvey Eliseev, who announced his imminent retirement. He was not included in the top thirty, or even in the list of ten reservists ready to replace someone in case of refusal. Like Daniil Serokhvostov, who announced his intention to skip the rest of the tournament in Zlatoust.

By the way, for some reason, athletes from Belarus were not allowed to participate in the mass starts. Yes, until now the team could hardly take credit for its performance at the Spartakiad, because it was content with only one medal (Anton Smolsky won silver in the individual event), but the organizers could not be satisfied with this decision. However, she had a chance to slam the door loudly and compete for awards in the relay races. And the beginning of the women's season only confirmed these expectations.

The role of the Belarusian slaughterer went to Anna Sole. In Zlatoust, she looked extremely unconvincing and was never able to get into the top ten in single races, but this time she worked brilliantly. The bronze medalist of the 2021 World Championships did not make a single mistake and brought her closest rival 1 minute 10.7 seconds. Ksenia Shneider from the Tyumen region not only did not walk the distance in the best way, but was also forced to use three additional cartridges.

“This is the only race that I am satisfied with at this Spartakiad. I didn’t expect that there would be such an advantage... To be honest, I took the race so calmly, since all the failures at the Spartakiad had a hard impact on me. It was difficult for me to return home. Today I didn’t really count on anything, I no longer had the strength to be upset... I just went out to do what I can,” Sola is quoted as saying by “Championship.”

Daria Kudaeva did not support her compatriot’s initiative. If she was also flawless on the prone, then on the stand she needed as many as three additional cartridges. And although the girl avoided a penalty loop, she lost the lead. The magnificent Irina Kazakevich brought the Sverdlovsk region team to first place. She shot almost perfectly and quickly, and on the track she literally “flew away” from her competitors. If at the exit from the stadium she was ahead of her counterparts by three seconds, then at the time the baton was passed on, she was already “lucky” by more than 37. By the way, by this moment the team of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, led by Yulia Sheller, had managed to move to second position.

“We managed to work out our stage 100% today. There was one additional prone round, but I think for such a race it’s not bad. I had to play a lot with moves. It’s good that we managed to cope with the shooting while standing,” Kazakevich said.

After that, it began to seem as if the Sverdlovsk biathletes could no longer be stopped. At the third stage, Anastasia Shevchenko was unerring, increasing the gap over her opponents to 75.8 seconds, after which her namesake, Natalia, entered the distance. And at first everything went well. She walked along the track well and came to the bench in splendid isolation, but a fiasco awaited her there. In total, the athlete made seven mistakes and was forced to enter the penalty loop, which Natalya Gerbulova took advantage of. She sent all five bullets to the target and escalated the intrigue in the fight for gold to the limit.

In the end, everything was decided at the final firing line. Shevchenko miraculously managed to come to her senses and covered all the targets in a matter of seconds, while Gerbulova faltered and was forced to immediately use additional cartridges. Thus, the Sverdlovsk Region came first, the Krasnoyarsk Territory came second, and the Belarusian team finished third. In the battle for bronze, Irina Leshchenko beat Victoria Slivko and Elizaveta Kaplina.

Khalili's long-awaited victory

The fact that the men's mass start would be extremely fun became clear after the first shooting range. A number of stars were unable to control the wind and failed, allowing the little-known Viktor Plitsev to take the lead. And if Eduard Latypov, Karim Khalili, Alexander Loginov, Anton Babikov and Alexey Vagin missed twice each, then Alexander Povarnitsyn hit only one target out of five, dashing hopes for a successful performance. And even though he subsequently made only one misfire, he could no longer count on high places. As a result, only 20th place and three minutes of losing to the triumphant.

Plitsev was in the lead right up to the first post. Yes, his moves did not look very impressive and allowed his opponents to close the gap, but up to a certain point he stayed on top due to his accuracy. But he failed to maintain composure throughout the entire race. He missed once on the stands and didn’t even make the top eight.

By the way, on this day none of the athletes managed to please their fans with perfect shooting. Alexander Kornev, who missed only one target, handled it best of all, but this did not allow him to reach the podium. His performance was unconvincing and he finished only seventh, losing 49.3 seconds to the champion. For comparison, Loginov, who made four mistakes, lost 2.1 seconds less.

“My shooting fell apart, although I feel fine. I could fight, but you can’t win medals with such shooting. To be honest, I have been delving into myself for a long time. There is something that the shooting range is simply not suitable for, there wasn’t enough time to adapt,” Loginov said.

This time Latypov experienced the same problems. He started the Spartakiad with two victories, but towards the end of the championship he lost his form a little and first became fifth in the individual race, and then could not help the Bashkortostan team rise above ninth place in the mixed relay. True, it’s hardly worth making a complaint against Eduard himself, because he himself was impeccable at the stages and passed his stage almost perfectly.

But this time I couldn’t repeat my result, although I was very close to it. If he had shot at the “milk” not four times, but at least three, he would probably have fought for gold until the very finish line. And so he was forced to be content with bronze, won in a head-to-head duel with Kirill Bazhin.

“It’s a serious condition, I wouldn’t say that I felt functionally well. Mistakes were associated with this; I didn’t understand why mistakes were happening. Despite everything, I fought, I knew that I could and was able to win back at a distance. I concentrated on the last shooting and managed to finish third. But the race didn’t work out, I expected to fight for victory,” admitted Latypov.

As for gold, there was no truly intense struggle until the last meters. Yes, starting from the second round, Khalili and Vagin walked side by side and literally simultaneously hit one target after another. And they left the stadium together after the final stand. But Karim’s advantage in speed showed up there. On the way up, he broke away from his opponent and did not allow him to catch up. However, Alexey was hardly upset, because before that he had never been in the top 20 in individual disciplines at the Spartakiad.

“I really wanted to win, today was the last chance. The first prone spoiled the race, I had to catch up, but I’m glad that everything worked out... The reserve allowed me to calm down a little. From the third lap I had to add, I spent a lot of energy, then a jerk on the last one. “I wanted to rest a little,” Khalili admitted.