The sprint at the Russian Biathlon Championships in Tyumen did not turn out well for a number of athletes: some did not cope with the work on the shooting range, others did not guess with ski lubricant for warm weather. Therefore, in the pursuit race, many wanted to rehabilitate themselves.
Well, the first to hit the track on Tuesday were Karim Khalili, Pyotr Pashchenko and Ilnaz Mukhamedzyanov, who had shot perfectly the day before. Daniil Serokhvostov was located 20 seconds from the last one. After the first shooting range, he even broke into the top three, beating the bronze medalist of the Beijing Olympics.
However, the second prone made significant adjustments to the balance of power. The sharp-shooting Paschenko left the stadium with an advantage of 33.2 seconds over Ivan Kolotov, who started fifth and also cleared all targets. And 13 seconds behind the representative of the Perm region was Alexander Loginov, who went into the distance in 16th place. Serokhvostov and Mukhamedzyanov went to two penalty loops and then were unable to return to the fight for medals.
The stand again brought surprises. After her, the only athlete with zero misses in the top ten was Kolotov, thanks to which he reduced the gap from Paschenko, who missed once, to 5.9 seconds. Khalili and Kornev again joined the leaders, also hitting all their targets. Alexander started fourth, but remained in the shadows due to two prone errors. Loginov fell behind a little due to one missed target.
As a result, the four came to the last shooting almost simultaneously. And then a battle of nerves began, in which Kolotov unexpectedly won. He again shot clean, and the opponents went through two penalty loops each. As Ivan admitted after the race, he understood that only with impeccable work at the turn could he qualify for medals.
“The season didn’t turn out very well for me, I came to the championship thinking that it was time to get out of this hole. Every day I prepared myself to go out into the sprint and shoot zero. Then I’ll be in colors, because I understand that the guys are much stronger in their moves now. Only clean shooting will save me. On the first day I finished fifth,” Kolotov said on Match TV.
“Today I also set myself the task of shooting without mistakes. Even taking into account all the risks of my move and the guys’ move, I knew: zero is the best lubricant. Moreover, my skis today were 100% not the fastest. Many people visited me. I understood that on the last lap the main thing is not to rush from the very beginning. They just can’t drive at their own pace: they definitely won’t be able to beat me for 30 seconds on such a track,” the athlete added.
In fact, no one caught up with the biathlete, although at the finish the gap of 36.4 seconds was reduced to 8.1. But a serious battle unfolded for silver. Loginov was the first to leave the stadium in pursuit of Ivan. Anton Smolsky and Eduard Latypov were very close by. At the same time, the second one consistently missed once at each turn, so he could not get closer to the leaders than 45 seconds.
On the last lap, he turned on the maximum speed and, together with the Belarusian, pulled up to Alexander. The trio created a comfortable lead over Kirill Bazhin and Alexander Povarnitsyn, who left the shooting range at the same time as them.
The biathletes were unable to identify the strongest before the finish line. Two Russians and a Belarusian rolled out simultaneously to the finish line, but Latypov was slightly ahead. It seemed that he would get the silver, but Loginov managed to get ahead of his compatriot in the race. Smolsky remained fourth.
At the same time, according to Eduard, he simply did not have enough strength for the last meters. And the athlete complained after the race about not the most successful shooting.
“I knew that Loginov was behind. But I gave all my strength to catch up with the guys. There weren't enough of them for the last straight. I saw his shadow approaching. And by the sound he was getting closer. However, today the one who could do the better cross-leg was supposed to win. I just didn't have the strength. I'm not very happy with the result. I made my mistakes, I was in a hurry, I had to hit. Annoying mistakes,” Latypov noted.
In a similar discipline among women, Polina Shevnina initially performed well. She started fifth, 29.6 seconds behind the leader, Victoria Slivko, but even before the shooting range, together with Irina Kazakevich, she caught up with Kristina Reztsova, who was second, and then, thanks to accurate shooting, she was the first to run the distance.
Mikhail Shashilov's team was a little slow at the shooting range, but also hit all the targets and was only three seconds behind the Moscow representative, which she quickly won back. Therefore, the girls rolled out together for the next prone and also went to the penalty loop as a duet.
Belarusian Anna Sola took advantage of this. She entered the distance sixth, but unlike her competitors, she was able to overcome two firing lines without errors. Slivko rushed in pursuit of her, this time covering all the targets. And then there was the trio of Kazakevich, Shevnin, Reztsov.
On the stand, Sola missed twice and returned the lead to Victoria, who had shot clean. The rest of the girls had at least one penalty lap, so the advantage of the sprint winner over the intermediate second place was 21.8 seconds.
Alas, Slivko could not hold him back. At the last stand, she made a mistake and again let the Belarusian, who had covered all the targets, go ahead, as well as Shevnina, who had finally worked cleanly. Sola went into the lap with a 7.1 second lead over second place. Despite the fact that the athlete was not in the best shape after her illness, she managed to hold it and win gold.
The silver medalist also decided on the distance. Shevnina easily escaped from Slivko in the last kilometers and crossed the finish line alone.
“The tactic was to get closer to my rivals from the first laps. And then in the end it was necessary to correctly distribute forces,” Shevnina noted.
Reztsova was one step away from the podium, she was let down by a miss on the last stand, and Kazakevich remained only seventh, letting Anastasia Batmanova and Anastasia Goreeva go ahead.
Interestingly, the second day of the national championship was also remembered for a noble deed. Despite Sola’s victory, the Russian anthem was played at the Pearl of Siberia stadium, since, according to the regulations, the Belarusian team does not participate in the award ceremony. But commentator Dmitry Guberniev corrected this by broadcasting the desired composition live.