The Russian Biathlon Championships in Tyumen ended on Sunday with the men's relay and women's mass start. The girls traditionally went first to determine the strongest and compete for medals among themselves. There were no surprises before the race - all the leaders of the national team competed at a distance of 12.5 kilometers.
There were some troubles on the first lap: Alina Kudisova fell. The athlete did not receive any serious injuries and managed to continue the race. True, already on the first bench I made three mistakes and ended up in last place. And 17 people shot zero at once, so no one managed to create a big advantage.
After the second firing line, the group thinned out to eight biathletes who performed cleanly. And the first among the pursuers were Natalia Shevchenko and Victoria Slivko, who entered one penalty loop. During the distance, the girls managed to improve their positions and catch up with the leaders, but the chase affected them differently. And if the ex-skier did not notice her, having again covered all the targets, then her companion missed twice.
And Natalia already ran away from the shooting range alone after Kristina Reztsova and Irina Kazakevich, who had worked to zero for the third time in a row. At the distance, Shevchenko played a little more and rolled into the stadium on the fourth line when her rivals were just starting to prepare.
Standing shooting is not a strong point for both of them, so the ex-skier had every chance of even taking first place. And indeed, Christina took two penalty loops, Irina – one. And Natalia closed all the targets and went for the first gold medal of the Russian Championship of the current season.
Kazakevich ran in pursuit of her with a gap of 14.5 seconds, but she was unable to win it back from Shevchenko. The opponent, on the contrary, only increased her advantage at the finish: it amounted to 26.4 seconds. And Anastasia Shevchenko closed the top three. She made a mistake on the third stage, but worked cleanly on the second stage and went into the last lap with a ten-second advantage over Reztsova. Kristina tried to grab bronze, but, like Kazakevich, she didn’t succeed. Nastya resisted with all her might and did not allow the Beijing Olympics medalist to approach her.
It is symbolic that the podium was occupied by girls from the Sverdlovsk region, who train together and failed the relay the day before, leaving without awards. As Shevchenko noted, it turned out to be a small revenge for that offensive defeat.
“We have said more than once that this championship was difficult for our entire team, but today it was rewarded in full for all the girls. I am very happy. I would like to mention Nastya, who fought tooth and nail for this third place. I am very glad that the three of us managed to climb onto the podium. Yesterday we got angry and said, we’ll show everyone the full program,” Natalia said on Match TV.
And the men's relay was marked by a stunning performance by the Tyumen region team, for which Vadim Istamgulov, Alexander Povarnitsyn, Alexander Loginov and Evgeny Garanichev ran. In four stages, the athletes used additional ammunition only twice and naturally won with an advantage of 30.5 seconds.
Already at the first stage, four leaders were formed, which, in addition to the Tyumen residents, included Belarusians, as well as teams from the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug-Yugra and Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. The biathletes from these teams walked together with a small gap from each other. So, after the fourth shooting, Dmitry Lazovsky was the first to run away from the stadium, followed by the exact Povarnitsyn. At the same time, despite two misses, Viktor Plitsev was only 9.6 seconds away, and Nikita Porshnev was 17.4 seconds away, having missed three times.
Loginov began to create a gap for the Tyumen region already in the prone position. He covered all targets with six rounds, while Belarusian Stepan Danilov needed seven. Thanks to this, Alexey Vagin caught up with him, taking the baton from Porshnev. Both of them were 11 seconds behind the leader. After the stand, it increased to 20, since the world champion worked at the shooting range much faster. He also accelerated on the track, giving Garanichev an advantage of 42.6 seconds over Vagin. The Belarusian lagged even further - by 53.2 seconds.
At the same time, Evgeniy had to fight at a distance with Petr Paschenko, who at the Russian Championship looked faster than the veteran. However, in order to catch up with the medalist of the Sochi Games, it was also necessary to shoot like him. But the representative of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug-Yugra did not succeed. Two additional cartridges each in the prone position and in the standing position negated all his efforts at the distance. Anton Smolsky made the same number of mistakes in total, bringing his team only bronze.
Garanichev, who was running the last race of his career, finished with the regional flag and the podium chanting: “Zhenya! Zhenya!". Colleagues greeted him with champagne and cake. As the athlete admitted, already at the shooting test, tears came to his eyes as he walked past the stands.
“Thank you very much to the fans for your support! The fans really create the atmosphere at competitions, they always support us, encourage us, this additionally motivates us. I think, yes, I slammed the door well. Thanks to my haters who constantly spread rot on me...
I started here and end my career in the best stadium in the world. I couldn't let my team down. My colleagues on the Tyumen region team brought me a comfortable advantage. I just had to shoot and just row to the finish line, which is what I did,” admitted Garanichev.
The point in my career really turned out to be bright: two golds in relays and bronze in the mass start. The biathlete has not yet decided on his future. However, the head of the RRF, Viktor Maigurov, said that everyone was waiting for him in the Russian team.
“Thank you for your life in sports. Your years are a wonderful page in our sport. You wrote a wonderful story. I am also overwhelmed with feelings. I am sure that you will pass on your skills to more than one generation. We are always ready to invite you to the team to help the guys,” the specialist noted.