A new type of show competition debuted in Khanty-Mansiysk

And yet, the seemingly ossified forms of competition begin, in the second season of the complete exclusion of athletes from international competitions, to acquire new fabrics in all forms. Some, like figure skaters, moved earlier and have already spent the past year attracting jokes and jokes to the traditional achievement and display of results, combining shows and not extra prize money with the usual tournaments. Someone starts with this season.

The Russian Biathlon Union now arranges team prologues before the main starts. They will take place in eight cities that host stages of the Russian Cup, the Commonwealth Cup and the Russian Championship. What will it be? Boys and girls – separately, four 100-meter ski sprints in the city center and four duel shooting events in stadiums. Either the first or the second for one city.

Sprinting and shooting will be held according to the Olympic system: quarterfinals, semifinals, repechage finals, finals. The draw for participants will take place at a press conference on the day of official training.

The overall reaction of the athletes was positive: the new disciplines will help athletes switch from the routine struggle at official competitions to a more “entertainment program from childhood, thereby relieving them psychologically.” And simply: “this will help us have fun.” Between starts – just what you need.

If you add monetary advantages to the professional and psychological ones, and prologues are not free, then everything will go, as they say, to the house, everything will be beneficial. For first, second and third place at a separate stage, winners receive 50, 40 and 30 thousand rubles. Based on the results of the team competition at the end of the season, the winning team will receive a million rubles. Yes, a comparison with the financial component of the recently debuted races of the International Club Biathlon League (a million to the winner of each race here and now), of course, suggests itself. But here is a question for sponsors, and this is a sensitive matter.

For the prologues, four teams were formed: “Kings of the Quiet Hour”, “Children of Alexander Pak”, “Chuck-Chuck Norris”, “One Right”. Moreover, the biathletes came up with the names of the teams themselves. The teams consist of 32 athletes.

And it was precisely on this issue that Nikita Porshnev, for example, spoke out before the start. Moreover, he himself was taken to the team, but he himself asked to replace himself “with another athlete, more talented and eager for such competitions at every training session on my team.” Porshnev believes that there are about 70 men currently competing at the Russian Cup, but only 16 have been selected, and “everyone understands that these are people close to the captain,” even if they will be shuffled during the drawing process. And the same leaders, of course, should be “in the picture to attract sponsors and people far from our sport.” But, Nikita is sure, there are athletes who can be stronger than Latypov or Khalili in a shooting competition or in a 100-meter race.

And hence the proposal: if they were given the opportunity to choose a coach from his team in the regions, he would field a competitive athlete who lacks the motivation to step over himself at regular Russian Cup starts. And this athlete would have a chance to compete with the best in another discipline.

And, if at 10 km such a biathlete is far from the leaders, and in the prologue he manages to “overtake or shoot,” this will give him additional motivation for growth. And for him this will be more important than for those who have already overtaken more than once, and see “this is only a monetary reward.”

This is how, for example, Alexander Loginov chose his team “Kings of Quiet Hours”. (Anton Babikov, Mikhail Burundukov, Alexander Povarnitsyn, Anna Grukhvina, Kristina Reztsova, Victoria Slivko, Ksenia Shneider.) Loginov told the SBR that ideally for him “there would be a random choice, roughly speaking, taking candy wrappers out of a hat.” That is, he saw this choice as completely random. But in the end, the captains chose teams from the provided list. “I stuck to the idea that we need all-rounders, not just sprinters or shooters. It turned out how it turned out.”

Captain Irina Kazakevich, of course, was not surprised by the choice of, for example, Karim Khalili, but the appearance of Viktor Plitsev in the “One Right” team came as a surprise to many. (Tamara Derbusheva, Natalia Shevchenko, Anastasia Shevchenko, Kirill Bazhin, Karim Khalili, Denis Irodov and Viktor Plitsev.) Yes, Plitsev has already hinted at possible results during the season, but still, the biathlete is still, one might say, not very familiar. Kazakevich explains: he has known him for a long time, since he was a junior. “He was a very strong guy at the time, then he disappeared for a period of time.”

In the team “Children of Alexander Pak”, captain Natalya Gerbulova gathered Anastasia Grishina, Ksenia Dovgaya, Ekaterina Noskova, Evgeniy Emerkhonov (at first it was Kazakevich who had her eye on him, and it was Emerkhonov who reminded her of Plitsev), Roman Eremin, Alexander Kornev, Daniil Serohvostov .

Gerbulova also explained her choice. I immediately understood, for example, that I would take Katya Noskova to the team. And then she joked: “And the boys, since Katya and I are already older biathletes, decided to take a little younger.” But not only youth played a role, but also “creativity, audacity and, of course, the ability to pull together in a stressful situation.”

What are these “children of Pak” and where did they come from? I had to struggle with the name, because the biathletes, according to the captain, were frolicking with all their might (they recruited creative ones). Natalya didn’t even dare to voice some options, “the humor is too subtle.” Danya Serokhvostov even “reached” in his thoughts the Icelandic glacier “Eyjafjallajökull”. But in the end everyone decided to settle on the name “Children of Alexander Pak.” You can say, in gratitude: “He is the organizer of these competitions, but they very rarely talk about him.” (Alexander Pak is the executive director of the SBR.)

Captain Eduard Latypov led the Chuck-Chuck Norris team. (Dmitry Ivanov, Pyotr Pashchenko, Vasily Tomshin, Anastasia Batmanova, Lyubov Kalinina, Elizaveta Kaplina, Polina Shevnina.) Latypov himself approves of the idea of ​​such a dynamic competitive format – he says that it is interesting, and there is closer communication with the fans. I chose more versatile athletes, those who can accelerate over a short distance and not be inferior in shooting. Someone was dragged away by competitors: “whoever had time, ate it.” Chuck-chak is a famous Tatar treat, everyone knows, as well as the fact that Chuck Norris is a force, invincible. There were options for both “Buffalo” and “Ediki”, but Latypov did not follow the lead of his comrades, which is reasonable and fair.

Teams – without the right of substitution. In addition to Khanty-Mansiysk, prologues will be held in Tyumen (December 5–6, sprint), Ufa (December 12–13, shooting), Tchaikovsky (January 9–15, shooting), Izhevsk (February 16–22, sprint), Ufa ( February 27–28, shooting), Tyumen (March 21–22, sprint), Murmansk (April 1–11, which type will be chosen later). The specific date will be selected depending on the weather.

Now the biathlon show is moving to the officially planned level. But, no doubt, there will be many ideas: different and unexpected. Talented people are talented in everything; both Olympic champions and non-champions are also good at generating ideas. Recently, for example, Alexander Legkov, with the help of Dmitry Guberniev, again provoked biathletes, forcing them to discuss the topic: would they like to fight with skiers in the middle of the season and at what distance, to see who is stronger?

Anton Babikov honestly admitted: such questions should always be taken with a dose of adventurism. “When an Olympic champion offers you something like this, you definitely shouldn’t agree to 50 km.” And he suggested that the choice would fall on a shorter distance: 10 km, maximum 20 km. But it’s interesting. “We are ready to accept everything that can give us points for growth.”

Loginov could only agree with his colleague and practically approve “adjacent” races between biathletes and skiers in the future. “It would be great and spectacular. To be specific, some kind of “cut” for 10 km or 15 km.” In general, when two such biathlon monsters are in favor, the idea will clearly not go to waste. Legkov himself (and his “share of adventurism”) will definitely not forget it.

As you can see, not all biathletes were sorted into teams. Larisa Kuklina, Maxim Tsvetkov, Ilnaz Mukhamedzyanov, Anastasia Goreeva, Ulyana Nigmatullina are not on the lists… We will probably find out the reasons later, but they can be purely businesslike, as happened, for example, before the official start of the SBR season, when the MLKB debuted. Not all strong athletes participated; coach Yuri Kaminsky then explained the absence of part of his group by saying that the biathletes were not yet ready. And for the next season, it made more sense for them to stay in training at Seminsky Pass. “Based on our concept of preparation, we made a decision; if I had known in advance, we would have adjusted. Now we had to rearrange the schedule, but for some it was possible, but for others it was not.”

Coach Mikhail Shashilov also expressed his position: “If I have an event in Tyumen, I cannot exchange it for Khanty-Mansiysk. If they had agreed on it in the spring, maybe they would have started, but I have an event, the Ministry of Sports paid money for it.”

But the prologues will take place right before the starts of the stages; here there will be no such moments of inconsistency. Therefore, all that remains is to wait to see how the races themselves go. And be glad that biathlon is looking for new forms of attracting fans and entertaining – and there is absolutely nothing wrong with this word – the athletes themselves.

And in the first prologue in Khanty-Mansiysk, starting from the quarterfinals, they competed in a dispute over speed: Kristina Reztsova – Ekaterina Noskova, Tamara Derbusheva – Elizaveta Kaplina, Anastasia Batmanova – Irina Kazakevich, Ksenia Dovgaya – Anna Grukhvina, Dmitry Ivanov – Alexander Povarnitsyn, Kirill Bazhin – Alexander Kornev, Vasily Tomshin – Evgeny Emerkhonov, Denis Irodov – Alexander Loginov.

Among the women, Anna Grukhvina was the fastest, Elizaveta Kaplina was second, Irina Kazakevich was in third place. Among men, Alexander Kornev received the title of swift, Denis Irodov took second place, and Evgeniy Emerkhonov took third place.