How Eduard Latypov became the first world champion: ultrasprint in biathlon

Perhaps the idea of ​​a biathlon ultrasprint would not have been realized so quickly. But the biathletes arrived for the first snow in Aldan and could not, as they wanted, compete with the skiers who were already there at the starts. Therefore, we decided to hold a biathlon sprint. The idea of ​​a new start (who else?) was born by the famous cross-country skiing coach Yuri Kaminsky, who in 2020 sensationally switched to biathlon.

The athletes ran a distance of 1900 meters with two shooting stages in three stages: prologue, semi-final with elimination and final. That is, practically a ski sprint without quarterfinals, and only because there are not so many biathletes at the training camp.

At the turn, biathletes could use three additional cartridges, for each uncovered target – a penalty of 8 seconds. It was this high-speed shooting practice that was the team’s goal. In the final, the six strongest players determined the winner.

Biathletes from the Russian men’s team, Larisa Kuklina, who trains with them, athletes from Yakutia, skier Olga Zholudeva from coach Oleg Perevozchikov’s group (did not reach the finals) took part in the ultrasprint. For women, the first three places were distributed to: Regina Petrova, Larisa Kuklina and Kristina Pavlushina. For men: Eduard Latypov, Ivan Kolotov, Kirill Bazhin.

Eduard Latypov rejoiced at both the fans and his own feelings, calling the competition “cool.” And I thought about whether it would be worth introducing such starts into a permanent calendar in the future? He believes that a “test of the pen” is one thing for 20 people. But organizing an ultrasprint for the same 80 biathletes participating in the Russian Cup is already an issue that requires serious study. First of all, in a clearly structured time schedule: how to distribute everyone according to competition minutes, so that the athletes also have time to rest between races.

The parent of the new racing format, Yuri Kaminsky, also believes that everything turned out both spectacular and useful. But there’s no need to rush to add an ultrasprint to your calendar. Experts are still arguing over what laws the new format should and can live by. For example, a penalty loop was excluded, but it turned out that one of the athletes did not meet the extra rounds. Or Emerkhonov took second place in the semi-finals, but was put in last place because he left one target open. That is, the rules of ultrasprint need to be worked out so that there are no blank spots left.

But the ski coaches who are at the training camp in Aldan, Kaminsky emphasized, spoke out in favor of holding such races. He himself believes that it is necessary to run them. This provides the same, so always needed, opportunity to obtain additional information about athletes. Specifically for the first ultrasprint, the coach gave a plus sign to Kolotov and Bazhin, who “pleased us in the prologue, but, unfortunately, got stuck on the stand.” I was upset by what Emerkhonov and Kornev showed, and was surprised by the shooting, which was not at all typical of Tomshin. And he summed it up: ultrasprint is a format that is difficult to quickly adapt to: a short ski segment, and then it’s a milestone. The coach spoke briefly about Latypov’s victory: one of those who should have won.

The specialist says that in general biathletes have recently caught up with skiers – both on the world track and ours. The same Eduard Latypov has already won against skiers at the All-Russian competitions in Aldan, albeit not the most important ones. And biathletes can compete with skiers even at their Russian championships – but only for training purposes, because a good result requires special training. But as we enter the season, racing with skiers is very interesting for biathletes.

By the way, Kaminsky believes that he would not rush to place high hopes on those who want to switch from skiing to biathlon. He says that in the summer several skiers planned to switch to biathlon, but the skiing speed of these athletes is no higher than that of most members of the biathlon team. Therefore, what is the point of including these skiers directly into the national biathlon team? That is, take an athlete who has never even held a rifle in his hands, and whose moves are no different from the national team biathletes.

Yes, Natalia Shevchenko’s transition from skiing to biathlon, famous for its rapid efficiency, turned out to be justified in the end, but, Kaminsky believes, the coach took a lot of risks. And if Shevchenko had not shown results, then Mikhail Shashilov would receive a sea of ​​criticism. That is, technically, Kaminsky sees the path from skiing to a related sport as follows: first, the athlete should move to the regions, and after progress, to the national team.

League of Expectations

The time of forced isolation and the absence of the usual international starts provide an opportunity for experimentation and the emergence of new tournament formats. Ultrasprint – one might say, is still entertainment for a narrow circle of people. But the newly created International Club Biathlon League, which has created a sensational publicity, is a big move. The first tournament will take place in Khanty-Mansiysk on November 18–19.

The new League is not afraid of the IBU, it does not submit to the world biathlon structures, and there is nothing left to take away from our athletes in the name of punishment. But it is still difficult to say for sure how representative the first tournament will be in terms of foreign athletes.

First, the participation of biathletes from Russia, Belarus, China, Mongolia and Turkey was announced. Russia and Belarus – yes. The Chinese seem to be processing visas, according to Andrei Prokunin (coach of the Chinese club Liaoning), who works with them. There are almost no domestic competitions in China; the club plans to bring seven people: three girls, one of whom is a junior, three men and one junior. The Mongols and Turks are still lost somewhere: either they were afraid, or they decided not to advertise their appearance. The organizers are expecting 120 biathletes in total, equally divided between men and women.

So far, the very idea of ​​​​creating such an organization has only received approval: both from athletes who have the opportunity to earn money, and from specialists. As Anton Babikov believes, for example, the club biathlon league can help resolve many issues and generally “reformat our domestic competitions, and in the future, maybe international ones.”

And the same Yuri Kaminsky has long said that the future lies in both skiing and biathlon, namely in clubs. Because the state support system often stupidly loses money, and club owners will spend the invested funds more efficiently. And unnecessary bureaucracy, when there is no opportunity, for example, to quickly make a decision on the same change of meeting place, can be avoided with the club system; it will be more flexible.

The initiator of the organization of the League, the head of the Moscow Region Biathlon Federation, Alexey Nuzhdov, explains that one cannot put up with the current situation when the national biathlon federations of Russia and Belarus are suspended from participation in international competitions and cannot organize their own tournaments. The way out is to create our own tournament, “which will not fall under global jurisdiction, where we will be free to do whatever we want.”

The debut will have to be seen and the idea tested in practice for more than one day. MLKB will begin real life right before the start of the first stage of the Russian Cup. The tournament program in Khanty-Mansiysk includes four races. On the first day there will be men’s and women’s mass starts, on the second day there will be pursuit races. The winners of the races will receive 1 million rubles, silver medalists – 500 thousand, bronze medalists – 250 thousand. And the top 6 will not leave empty-handed: sixth place – 50 thousand rubles.

The barrel is not in the face

Meanwhile, the International Biathlon Union refused to hold the super sprint. Now this race will not happen even at the IBU Cup stages. The IBU has also equalized the distances for the men’s and women’s stages in the mixed relay. All athletes will now complete three laps of 2 km (previously, biathletes had 6 km, men – 7.5 km).

The explanation for the introduction of new equal rights for men and women at a distance was as follows: “reasons of organizational convenience” came into play. So, in other words, it is difficult to manage a race when you have to control 2km and 2.5km laps at the same time. IBU officials say that, for example, there were signage problems midway through the race and part of the track was not in use when the women started first, which could pose a problem in the event of snowfall. Additionally, the change can be considered a “small functional change that allows athletes to recover faster.”

The International Biathlon Union also made changes to the safety regulations, tightening the rules for handling rifles. And this just suggested itself. Last year, Belgian biathlete Thierry Lange at the World Cup in Pokljuka, Slovenia, amazed and frightened everyone by blowing snow from his muzzle, pointing his rifle straight at his face. The safest position for a rifle now is to carry it on the back or with the bolt open, and on the range the athlete should not point the muzzle of the rifle freely at himself or others. It is prohibited to make any movements with the rifle that could endanger others, regardless of whether the rifle is loaded or not. For violation – disqualification.

Russian Cup, 1st stage, Khanty-Mansiysk

November 25 – single mixed relay

November 26 – mixed relay

Russian Cup, 2nd stage, Khanty-Mansiysk

December 1 – sprint

December 2 – pursuit races

December 3 – mass starts

Russian Cup, 3rd stage, Tyumen

December 7 – individual races

December 9 – sprint

December 10 – mass starts

Commonwealth Cup, 2nd stage, Ufa

December 15 – sprint

December 16 – pursuit races

December 17 – mass starts