After a short rest, Russian biathletes again took to the track in Tyumen. On Saturday at the Russian Championships, athletes determined the strongest in the women's relay and men's mass start.
The day started with team competition. Ten teams competed in the race, and among the favorites were representatives of the Sverdlovsk region, who clearly wanted to take revenge for their failure in the mixed race: due to Irina Kazakevich’s penalty loop, the regional team found itself outside the winner’s line.
However, the first stage of the women's race remained with the Belarusian team. Once again, just like on Thursday, Anna Sola completed the distance superbly. The girl used only two additional cartridges, and with her move she beat her pursuers by 26.9 seconds.
The athlete’s main rival on the track was Elizaveta Kaplina, but the biathlete’s shooting did not go very well: due to five misses at two shooting ranges, she finished only fifth in the final lap. However, thanks to her high speed, she managed to get ahead of the other Russians and passed the baton to the second.
At the next stage, Olympic champion Dinara Smolskaya ran for the Belarusians. Polina Shevnina and Irina Kazakevich rushed in pursuit of her. Strong skiers led the group of pursuers, which also included Ekaterina Frolova, Ksenia Dovgaya and Kira Dyuzheva.
Already after the prone stage, which Smolskaya worked with one additional cartridge, the Belarusian’s advantage was halved. Seeing Dinara's back, Kazakevich and Shevnina picked up the pace and rolled out to the standings with a minimal lag behind the leader. However, this played a cruel joke on them. Irina traditionally went to the penalty loop. Polina was also close, but she overcame her excitement and still closed the remaining target, leaving the circle 24.7 seconds after the Belarusian.
Unlike their compatriots, Frolova and Dovgay worked well at the turn and left the shooting range even before Shevnina, but it was difficult for the girls to compete with her on the track. Polina quickly caught up with them, and then the trio went around Smolskaya. Alas, this is where the fight for medals ended for the Belarusians: Daria Kudaeva and Adelina Sabitova were unable to support their compatriots.
At the third stage, young Frolova was replaced by Ekaterina Noskova. The representative of KhMAO-Yugra already in the first lap tried to break away from her rivals: Ulyana Nigmatullina and Kristina Pavlushina. It was not possible to create a big foundation for Kristina Reztsova, who ran last for the team. Thanks to her prone zero, she had a slight ten second advantage over her competitors. After the stand, it remained the same: three misses prevented it from increasing.
Nigmatullina became Catherine’s main pursuer. The representative of the Tyumen region used two additional cartridges at the firing lines and did not let the leader go far from her. But Pavlushina, after lying down, was more than 30 seconds behind. And after the stand, I let Natalia Shevchenko go ahead, who was trying to save the Sverdlovsk region after Kazakevich’s circle. The ex-skier, by the way, had a great time in her stage and passed the baton to third just 20 seconds from Noskova.
The fourth stage was a real highlight of the race. The first to run away from the stadium was Reztsova, who replaced Noskova. And Victoria Slivko followed her with a lag of 6.9 seconds. Already on the circle, she caught up with the bronze medalist of the Beijing Games, and the girls rolled out to the shooting range together. On prone, both were not ideal, but Slivko, who made one less mistake, was unable to create a reserve for herself: Kristina covered the targets an order of magnitude faster.
But another tragedy occurred for the Sverdlovsk region: Anastasia Shevchenko, like Kazakevich earlier, went to the penalty loop. And now she has completely deprived her team of chances for medals. Anastasia Goreeva was the third to leave the stadium.
On the second lap, Slivko and Reztsova did not force events and calmly reached the shooting range together, where they both missed once. But Christina again spent much less time preparing and ran the distance with 11 seconds to spare.
It was already enough for victory, since the representative of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug-Yugra looked stronger on the track in Tyumen, but on the last lap she added even more, finishing with a gap of 24.2 seconds over Victoria. And the third place was guaranteed by the representative of the Moscow region Goreeva.
“Before the start, Slivko told me: don’t run away from me quickly. And I answered: don’t shoot zeros, it should be somehow fair. As a result, she catches up with me on the first lap, I think: well, that means she won’t shoot zeros. Then I won’t strain myself too much and will sit behind her,” Reztsova joked at the finish line.
Alexander Loginov and Anton Babikov did not take part in the men's mass start. As the latter explained, both were infected with some kind of virus.
“I donated blood the day before, tests showed that the body is fighting the infection, so we decided not to go out today. There is no point in running in order to be 25th in the mass start. It’s better to prepare for the relay and support the team there,” Babikov told Match TV.
However, even in their absence there were enough contenders for medals. After the first prone, a group of leaders consisting of 11 people was formed, who worked accurately and quickly on the firing line.
At the second shooting, the number of athletes with zeros decreased significantly. Among them was Eduard Latypov, who was the first to leave the stadium, ten seconds behind Evgeniy Garanichev and Karim Khalili, and a group of six biathletes walked slightly behind. Alexander Povarnitsyn and Pyotr Paschenko looked very good at the distance. They entered a penalty loop after prone, but managed to get close to the leader.
Latypov’s stance traditionally failed. One miss dropped him to fifth place. The accurate Khalili led the race; Pashchenko, Garanichev and Belarusian Stepan Danilov were also in front of Eduard.
Karim was not as fast on the track as his opponents. Therefore, Peter quickly caught up with him, and Latypov reduced the gap to 12 seconds.
However, Khalili's strong point is shooting, which he once again demonstrated. The biathlete again covered all the targets and calmly ran onto the track first.
And Danilin won the fight for second place. The Belarusian, who was lagging behind the Russians, again worked to zero, while Pashchenko and Latypov, who had eaten their fill at a distance, missed the mark. Peter had three penalties, and Edurad had one. It was he who ended up finishing third in the finishing circle.
Garanichev almost created a sensation in his last individual race in his career. He went onto the ski track after Latypov and managed to catch up with his faster opponent. However, Evgeniy was not enough for more. In the end, Eduard accelerated and retained the bronze.