Biathletes in Tyumen on the last lap of the sprint barely carried their legs

The stages of the Russian Biathlon Cup – despite all the difficulties of holding, be it frost, cancellation of races because of it, or insufficient preparation of conditions on the ground – show a high level of competition among athletes.

The frost at the previous stage in Uvat, of course, spoiled both the nerves and the mood. Not without losses, which migrated to the next stage, which began in Tyumen. Coach Maxim Maximov, for example, is treated at home: sinusitis and the initial stage of pneumonia. All athletes say with one voice that the body is not happy with prolonged exposure to the cold. Eduard Latypov admits that the body has recently simply refused to endure the cold. And Irina Kazakevich recalls a frostbitten finger, rejoicing that, in general, everything is in order with her health after two weeks of “severe” frost.

But Tyumen pleased with normal weather, while Latypov pleased herself with a victory. Although he says that psychologically she was given to him hard. But I tried to mobilize as much as possible, not to force myself to think about the bad and to be in the race all the time.

Second in the men’s sprint was Roman Eremin, he trains with Latypov in the group of coach Yuri Kaminsky. The coach of his wards did not forget to praise, drawing attention to good shooting. Kaminsky told Match TV that this season he deliberately postponed the arrival of the form, experimented, “the experiments in the rifle unit were not entirely successful, probably, but winter will show, maybe they did better.”

In third place was Andrey Vyukhin, who left behind the winners of the Olympic Games in Beijing Maxim Tsvetkov and Karim Khalili. Vyukhin, of course, was very pleased, rejoicing that, unlike the two previous stages, he managed to combine both a good move and successful shooting on the home track. It was possible to overtake the titled ones before, but it was not possible to connect the two components to get on the podium.

According to Vyukhin, he used an interesting tactic: the leaders left in the third and fourth starting groups, and he chose the first one. He says that this was an idea to go the distance without too much information about competitors. But he keeps all the information about the starts in his head: in previous races he was 30 seconds from Latypov, and in Tyumen, with an equal number of misses, only 10 seconds. “This is my level, which I did not show (at the stages) in Khanty-Mansiysk and Uvat. They gave me a stick, and I showed that I really cooked.

Before leaving for the last lap between Latypov and catching up was only seven seconds. Eduard had to try not to give up the first place to Eremin. The leader of the national team Latypov, of course, is glad of the new competition. Just like competition in general. He says that a sharp fight is spectacular and cool for everyone. All prize-winners made one miss each, Daniil Serokhvostov, who became the fourth, made two.

Elizaveta Kaplina won in the women’s sprint of the third stage of the Russian Cup. And – she did not agree that she had a perfect race. She believes that she could have done better, although she is still satisfied. What is right: she worked cleanly at the shooting range and won, 30.6 seconds ahead of Dinara Alimbekova, who made one miss. The third was Ekaterina Noskova, also with one miss.

Alimbekova in the comment after the sprint praised Kaplina, saying that she saw how Liza worked, and without her she would not have had such a good race. “Thanks to Lisa for the fight, it was interesting to run away from her, to blow my legs on the last lap, which allowed me to take second place, and not become third.”

By the way, a lesson from the pros: Dinara is sure that misses when shooting are also useful, “it gives strength to run away later and win back seconds.” And there is another conclusion after the last starts of the season: in Europe, the snow is artificial, the speed there is higher, and on our tracks you need to take into account the difficult sliding, adapt to it.

And – again about the intensity of competition at the stages of the Russian Cup. Could, but did not win Irina Kazakevich, who missed twice on the rack and, as she herself admitted, lost with her head (sixth). Tamara Derbusheva could claim success, but she missed three times at the second stage. For some time, Victoria Slivko was in the lead (fifth with clean shooting), then Dinara Alimbekova. But Elizaveta Kaplina outstripped the titled athlete from Belarus in the end by 30 seconds with a ponytail, increasing the lead on the last lap. Anastasia Goreeva became the fourth without a single miss.