The final day of cross-country skiing competitions at the Spartakiad of the Strongest in Tyumen began with not the most pleasant news. At night the temperature dropped to almost -40 ˚С, which is why in the morning it was decided to postpone the start of the women's marathon. Initially, the girls were supposed to hit the track at 9:00 Moscow time, but in the end it happened an hour later. And as the head of the federation Elena Vyalbe explained, this was due to the intention to make life easier for athletes.
“We made the decision to transfer very quickly. We see how warming is going on. The guys said yesterday that it was cold on the first lap, but then great. At 11 o'clock -16 degrees is expected. Today was the coldest night, in some places it reached -38 degrees. All jury members made a unanimous decision. There was no talk at all about reducing the distance. Communicating with the athletes, the girls said that they were aiming for fifty dollars. We hope with God’s help everything will go well,” the president of the Russian Ski Racing Federation (FLGR) told Match TV.
Despite this, it was not possible to ensure the participation of all the stars in the final race of the championship. And the biggest loss was the absence of Veronica Stepanova from the application, which her mentor Yegor Sorin announced six days ago. Young Elizaveta Pantrina, who had already won two medals in Tyumen - in the relay and team sprint, was not included in it either.
“We initially discussed with the coach what races we would run. Five races were planned for sure, but there was no talk of a marathon. I ran my five, so... Will it be difficult for the girls to run 50 km in such cold weather? Here you need to prepare yourself mentally, gather your thoughts... They will run, of course. Favorites? Nastya Kuleshova,” Pantrina said on Match TV.
True, at first the athlete’s forecast did not come true. Yes, Kuleshova was part of the main group, but Alisa Zhambalova was in the lead. Already at the fifth kilometer, she took the lead and gradually increased the gap over her competitors. And if at the 8 km mark it was only 4.9 seconds, then after 15 kilometers it had already grown to 30. And it continued to increase.
In light of this, the main question was whether Zhambalova would be able to competently distribute her forces over the entire distance and avoid offensive mistakes that could prevent her from winning her first gold at the Spartakiad. And gradually reasons to doubt her success began to appear. The most serious one arose immediately after the control cutoff of 21.8 km. While going through one of the turns, Alice lost her balance and fell into the snow at full speed.
And after that, her advantage began to melt before our eyes. Already at the next mark it was halved - to 26.6 seconds, and four girls entered the stadium almost simultaneously. Zhambalova’s company included the aforementioned Kuleshova, as well as Tatyana Sorina and Evgenia Krupitskaya. And they all decided to simultaneously change their skis. And after that, Lidia Gorbunova joined them, forming an intermediate five main contenders for gold.
True, it did not last long. Very soon, Zhambalova was finally overcome by fatigue, which is why she began to fall further and further behind the leaders. And in the end she finished in sixth position, three minutes ahead of the winner. And five kilometers before the end, Gorbunova also “fell off”, having lost her hopes for the podium. Olga Tsareva came fifth.
Thus, the names of the marathon race winners were determined long before the end of the race. It remained to understand in what order the girls would cross the line. And at first Krupitskaya and Kuleshova looked like favorites, albeit by a couple of lengths, but they were ahead of Sorina. At times it seemed as if Tatyana was clinging to her opponents with all her might and not even thinking about triumph. But that was an illusion.
At the 48th kilometer she caught up with her counterpart, and on the final climb she took the lead and tried to escape from her competitors. But if Kuleshova could not maintain the high pace and fell a little behind, then Krupitskaya not only remained in the dispute for gold, but already on the final climb sat in a low stance and regained the lead. And she didn’t give up hers anymore. On the straight, Sorina desperately tried to push herself and overtake her opponent, but she didn’t have enough strength. The gap between the skiers was only 0.4 seconds.
“To be honest, there are no bright emotions, I haven’t realized it yet. I'm still in shock. The last two laps the first one was driving almost constantly. The girls didn’t come out (forward -
RT
), they were afraid that I was working hard, and it was easy for them to follow me. When you go first, it's always a risk. You don’t know how your opponents are feeling. But I’m glad that I worked the finish correctly. Letting Sorina pass is a tactical move... Everything turned out great,” Krupitskaya said on Match TV.
This victory allowed the representative of St. Petersburg to win her first victory at the Spartakiad and redeem herself for her not very successful performance at the tournament. After all, before that she did not have a single award to her name, and her best result was fourth place in the 20-kilometer skiathlon. Even though Sorina was left without gold, she made it clear that she continues to get in shape and is already capable of fighting with the strongest on a regular basis.