The final days of the Russian cross-country skiing championship in the Arkhangelsk region are taking place in difficult weather. Shortly before the start of the relay races in Malinovka, freezing rain began to fall, which, of course, complicated the task of preparing skis for the team servicers. The organizers also had to work hard to keep the track in good condition, and the athletes had to be careful on icy areas.
The first stage of the women's race went without any escape attempts, and six participants reached the first pass of the relay side by side, their gap from the group of pursuers was more than 20 seconds. It seemed that these teams would become the main contenders for medals, but in the second segment, Lidia Gorbunova accomplished a real feat, playing almost half a minute for 5 km and raising the Tatarstan team from eighth place to fourth. The leader of the stage was the representative of the Tyumen region Ekaterina Smirnova, the top three included Maria Istomina (Arkhangelsk region) and Olga Tsareva (Komi).
At the third stage, the leadership of the Tyumen team was strengthened by Olympic champion Tatyana Sorina, who managed to gain a 10-second advantage for her colleague Elizaveta Pantrina. However, at the final, the two-time silver medalist of this Czech Republic was up against Veronika Stepanova, and such a gap was not enough. The Olympic champion only needed one lap to overtake her opponent, and then she took the lead and only increased the pace.
Meanwhile, Daria Nepryaeva forced Pantrina to fight for silver. Elizaveta was the first to reach the finish line, but at some point she lost her balance and almost fell, having walked several meters literally on one leg. This hitch allowed the opponent to roll up and do a step-up, as a result the equipment recorded the same time. After a long analysis of the photo finish, the judges still decided to award silver to the Tyumen quartet, ruling that the toe of Pantrina’s boot crossed the line earlier.
“Elena Valerievna Vyalbe has said more than once that I am an excellent relay athlete. Today I proved it again. I started catching up from the first meters and didn’t give myself any slack. This was the only way to overtake Elizaveta Pantrina. A confident, clear victory. On the second lap, the descent was carried out with caution, the main thing was to resist,” Stepanova shared her impressions of the race on Match TV.
The first stage of the men's relay turned out to be truly combative. Particular attention here was focused on Alexander Terentyev and Sergei Ustyugov. The representative of the Arkhangelsk region, who entered the national championship after a long break, had to start in the fourth row, and it turned out to be quite difficult for him to get to the head of the peloton. The leadership was immediately taken by Sergei Ustyugov, who was periodically bypassed by Ilya Poroshkin.
But the climax of the stage happened literally in the last hundred meters, when the Olympic champion was already exhausted and on the descent let a large group of rivals pass ahead. As a result, Terentyev was the first to pass the baton, rising from eighth place, and four more teams were located within two seconds of him.
“I didn’t expect to have to run, I thought they wouldn’t put me on the relay. But when I found out, I wasn’t shocked. Our team is very strong, the guys were more worried about me than themselves,” said the 2022 Olympics medalist.
After a lap of the second stage, three athletes went into the lead - Alexey Chervotkin from the Arkhangelsk region, Evgeny Belov (Tyumen region) and Sergey Ardashev (Tatarstan-1). At first, Ermil Vokuev stood with them, having sensationally won the classic time trial a few days earlier and ended the phenomenal streak of Alexander Bolshunov. But, probably, the skis of the Komi representative did not work the best in difficult conditions, and he was unable to maintain the pace set by his rivals. And the trio of leaders arrived to pass the relay almost simultaneously, breaking away from their closest pursuer by more than 30 seconds.
In the third segment, which the athletes covered with a skate, only two contenders remained in the fight for victory, as Savely Korostelev and Denis Spitsov ran away from Anton Timashov. The athlete from Tatarstan had to cover most of the distance alone. The rivals walked side by side until the baton was handed over, leaving the opportunity for Alexander Bolshunov and Ivan Yakimushkin to decide the fate of the gold themselves.
However, few doubted that the three-time Olympic champion would celebrate another victory, and San Sanych again lived up to expectations. He went through the first lap in energy-saving mode, and on the second he turned on at full power and rode far away from his partner in the coaching group. Yakimushkin failed to catch up with the favorite, and Bolshunov calmly finished with the flag of the Arkhangelsk region. Ivan Gorbunov held onto bronze for Tatarstan, not allowing Ilya Semikov to catch up with him.
“The guys did all the work, mainly Alexander (Terentyev). It was unclear how he felt and how he would be able to fight, but he showed himself in all his glory and passed the baton first. It seems that it was already clear that we just needed to get there and not spoil his first stage,” Bolshunov said on Match TV.