Against the background of Stepanova’s failure: Bolshunov and Kuleshova won the skiathlon at the Russian Championship

Kuleshova's triumph and Stepanova's failure

On Sunday, at the Russian cross-country skiing championship in Malinovka, skiathlon medals were played out, where there were some surprises.

The main sensation with a minus sign was the disastrous performance of the Olympic champion in the relay, Veronica Stepanova, who for the first time this season remained outside the top three medalists in this discipline.

Lidia Gorbunova led the peloton from the start, but at first she was unable to break away.

The athletes stayed in a fairly tight group, with only eight seconds separating first and twentieth places.

But gradually many skiers who could have qualified for medals began to seriously lag behind.

By the 5.7 km mark, only nine participants remained in the lead group, and Veronika Stepanova, Elizaveta Pantrina and Alisa Zhambalova were more than 15 seconds behind the leader, who still remained Gorbunova.

Anastasia Kuleshova walked almost in step with Lydia, Tatyana Sorina and Maria Istomina stood next to her, and after them were Evgenia Krupitskaya and Alina Pekletsova.

The latter two slowed down towards the middle of the race, while Kuleshova took over from Gorbunova at the front.

Meanwhile, Stepanova was in 11th place and had been losing to her rivals for almost a minute.

After changing shoes, Kuleshova rushed into the gap, and Gorbunova could not hold on to her.

Soon Pekletsova was ahead of Lydia, and Sorina was neck-and-neck with Anastasia Prokofieva, who made a breakthrough from sixth position.

However, by that time they were no longer claiming victory, since 6 km before the finish their gap from first place was more than 40 seconds.

Stepanova settled lower and lower in the second ten.

Meanwhile, Pekletsova plucked up the courage to attack the leading position and coped with it quite successfully, although Kuleshova controlled everything and settled behind her opponent, even rejoicing at the opportunity to work at a second pace.

For 19-year-old Alina, who is spending her first adult season, the burden of leadership turned out to be unbearable - she quickly began to give up, and the experienced Anastasia easily ran away from her a kilometer before the finish.

In the final protocol, the girls were separated by 12.6 seconds.

“You always have to be ready to win.

When I followed Alina, I analyzed where her skis worked worse, where she sagged, and on the last lap I used all this.

It doesn’t matter how you go along the route, the main thing is how you finish,” Kuleshova said on Match TV after the victory.

Olympic champion Stepanova finished far outside the top three - in 18th place with a gap of more than 4 minutes.

This season, such a failure happened to her only once: at the Russian Cup stage in December, Veronica became 29th in the sprint.

In her justification, the skier stated that her condition at these competitions was far from optimal, but she decided not to miss the race, since this is not a passing tournament, but a national championship.

“We had to try our best.

A day in a carriage, two on foot.

Today I walked.

I realized this from the second climb.

I continued to work for the fans who supported me.

I won’t reveal all the details of what happened.

Let's talk to the coach.

But I was interested in working on how I felt when I was out of shape.

It was a test for me, I’m glad I got there,” Stepanova said on Match TV.

Bolshunov's 23rd gold

The men's race turned out to be much more dynamic.

In the classic part of the distance, the leaders changed quite often, and the main favorite Alexander Bolshunov kept in the shadows.

As the three-time Olympic champion later admitted, he had problems with sliding - his skis worked very poorly, so he had to make every effort to keep up with his rivals.

And Sergei Ustyugov attempted to escape right from the start, his impulse was supported by Alexey Chervotkin and Ilya Semikov.

However, by the 3.3 km mark the situation on the track had changed: Ustyugov slightly moderated his speed, realizing that at this pace he would not be able to reach the finish line, and his rivals overtook him.

After that, Chervotkin, Evgeniy Belov, Ilya Poroshkin, Ivan Yakimushkin alternately took the lead, and by the end of the classic ten, things were looking up for Bolshunov.

Many expected that after changing skis Alexander would rush into the lead, as he had done in many previous skiathlons, but in this race everything went according to a different scenario.

Andrei Melnichenko stood behind Bolshunov and not only did not let him go, but also made several attempts to attack.

He managed to increase the pace and force the favorite to give his best.

In a situation where the three-time Olympic champion's form is far from ideal due to illness, this could bear fruit.

Chervotkin did not lag behind the two opponents, and in the end put on a real show at the finish line.

He waited for the moment when the tired Alexander slowed down, and tried to take his opponent by surprise and roll out from behind him.

But it was not there.

The leader of domestic skiing immediately undertook a new acceleration and once again proved that he was ready to win in any condition, even without really recovering from a cold.

For him, this is already the 23rd victory in a row this season in personal races.

However, according to Yuri Borodavko, the consequences of the patient’s illness are still felt on the ski track.

“It’s not easy, he needs to recover, get in shape.

I think we will see him in better shape.

Due to his high skill and the fact that he is the strongest skier in the world, Sasha can set the right tactics and the sprinting qualities that he possesses help him fight with the racers,” noted the athlete’s coach.

Third place went to Sergei Ardashev, who managed to overtake both Melnichenko and Saveliy Korostelev in the final meters of the distance.

Sergei Ustyugov finished in 11th place, losing 33.7 seconds to Bolshunov.