Loginov wanted to, but did not leave biathlon: he did not shoot for more than seven months

This summer stage will remain the only one, although last season the athletes competed in both Sochi and Raubichi. But the number of Cup stages had to be reduced from six to four due to the main start of the year. (This will be the Spartakiad of Russia’s strongest athletes, which will take place in February.)

The first race of the stage, the men’s 10 km sprint, was won by Anton Smolsky. In second place is Alexander Povarnitsyn, in third – Nikita Porshnev. Two-time Olympic medalist Alexander Loginov was fifth, and three-time Olympic medalist Eduard Latypov was one line lower. And these results speak, rather, not about the degree of readiness of this or that athlete, but about the fact that the strongest athletes in Russia and Belarus are entering the fight.

And after the race, having barely cooled down from worries about events quite usual for biathlon – how beautifully Latypov pulled ahead, was the leader until the second shooting range, and then his speed killed him – all that was left was to calmly digest the failed sensation. And it’s good that I had to do this without flinching or regretting. In the summer, Alexander Loginov was going to retire.

The day before, Loginov joked: I was approaching the competition as not a dark horse, but a fat horse – I had gained extra pounds. And he admitted that he had no illusions about the results. As well as ambition. Which, however, seemed disingenuous: Loginov, but without ambition, is some kind of story that we do not want at all. Although Alexander even put his feelings into simple terms: he missed six months due to health problems, and just got on roller skates. And I didn’t shoot at all for seven and a half months. Here, of course, one was immediately tempted to ask in the spirit of the times: was it possible?

Sasha also said that he just wants to get back into shape and at least have fun. And here all we could do was nod our heads: we, too, just want to see Loginov’s return to form and have fun.

True, Alexander Kasperovich, Loginov’s coach, urges not to count on special hopes during the season. Sasha began training in the spring, and now, having completed several training camps, he is just entering the training regime. He is slowly getting involved, but the main thing is that he has a desire to train and compete after missing almost an entire season. As for the specific moment, Kasperovich described it for Loginov as follows: “I won’t say that he is in fighting condition, I don’t have much hope for this season,” but we need to perform, reach the usual training volumes. And “everything will be fine from now on.”

However, Loginov’s fifth place with one miss is by no means a result that cannot be recorded as an asset after a season missed due to problems. For example, Anton Babikov finished the race tenth with two penalties, and Karim Khalili ended up in 14th place with the same shooting.

And after the race, Loginov admitted to Match TV that he had thoughts about retiring from his career. “I will even say that I lived with these thoughts all spring, all June and July.” And only in August the biathlete tried to “put these thoughts away.” Why? Feels responsible “to everyone, so I decided to move on.”

True, this stage of the Commonwealth Cup in Sochi is 99% finished for him. He says he didn’t expect to get any places here and thought for a long time whether to start at all or not? “At the beginning of the preparatory period, I could not train for more than 40 minutes,

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Belarusian Anton Smolsky won the sprint convincingly: both by walking and shooting. I was pleased with myself and immediately launched into a professional analysis: “there are some nuances in the passage, I’ll think about them later. Somewhere, perhaps, I went a little too far in terms of intensity.”

He admitted that he should be wary of the same Loginov. And the fact that Sasha has not performed for a long time is not a question for discussion: “skills do not disappear, Alexander is a very strong athlete.” And – of course, Eduard Latypov.

Our fleet-footed Latypov was 1 minute 10 seconds behind Smolsky. But on the way to the second milestone, Eduard was 15 seconds ahead of Anton. It would be better, of course, to hold back these whirlwind seconds. It was the high speed that did not provide the opportunity for shooting.

National team coach Maxim Maximov did not refuse to express himself on this matter. “Latypov’s stance is, of course, disgusting, I can’t find another word.” And, if Eduard’s shooting in the prone position was called filigree, then everyone will still understand the problems in the standing position. “We agreed with him that he should not go too close to the shooting range, because the approach here is unique. We have a problem: we don’t shoot rhythmically in the stance. Therefore, our entire focus this season is on rhythmic shooting.”

Latypov himself said about the shooting: “I approached too quickly, I was not ready to shoot at such a pace.” And the condition can still be called serious, “therefore there is no time to think about some kind of separation.” He admitted that he simply didn’t have enough strength for the last round. But the first test at the start passed, now I will “analyze and approach differently, in any case I will fight, in no other way.”

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Alexander Povarnitsyn, who won silver, did not spare himself after the finish: “Two misses are unforgivable for such a sprint.” He admitted that there was wind, but allowed him to shoot at zero. “I did the training very well, but, apparently, nervous tension took its toll, even though I’m mentally better prepared, I feel stronger.”

Povarnitsyn said that we need to continue to work on ourselves. And he gave a characterization of this particular stage of the season: now is the stage of preparation when you need to show everything that you have developed. “I was no longer thinking about how I shot, what place I would take, but how and what part of the distance I needed to cover.”

Bronze Nikita Porshnev regretted one thing, for the same thing to himself and, in his words, made claims: “Only on the last climb, because I couldn’t bear it.” He says his coaches guided him, told him the seconds, they even shouted at the finish line. “Whether I win or lose two seconds, I don’t remember, but it was all close. And in the end I lost four. Of course, there are questions about the layout at the distance.”

True (and more than one biathlete can probably join these words of Porshnev), performances in the summer are always quite unpredictable. “Last summer at the Russian Championship with zeros, I was only seventh.”

And yet Nikita told about what was raging inside at a distance. “After the zero shot, I got carried away and ran faster along the distance.” Moreover, he thought that today was his day and he would be able to endure it, “or even aim for first place.” But he started too quickly. And he couldn’t bear it, “my muscles were stiff, I couldn’t push off like I did in the first two laps.”

But the national team coach Artem Istomin was in quite a shock after the race. He called Porshnev’s result a surprise: “This is not the athlete who is spectacular, here he ran the race tactically competently, and that’s how he got his result.” He admitted that Povarnitsyn is almost in the best shape for himself. And about Loginov he said simply: he amazed me to the point that “I even forgot about everyone else – I saw him here in training and thought that God forbid he would reach the finish line.”

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Dinara Alimbekova, who won both the sprint and the pursuit last year, is not competing for the women at the stage in Sochi. The titled biathlete can now only watch her husband Anton Smolsky win, giving him advice on the track. Which is what he does while expecting his first child, preferring not to sit on the couch. (At the same time, she also gives interviews; she said, for example, that she herself was born at seven months old; the mother was even told that the child would not walk at all.)

Irina Kazakevich, the winner of the mass start last year, decided this year to start counting her victories immediately from the sprint. She missed three times, but was 4.8 seconds ahead of Victoria Slivko, who shot clean. Ira said that they did a lot of work in the summer. But “I was walking in an average mode, somehow it just happened this way – I won’t say that I’m in some great shape and I feel one hundred percent,” it’s just that now “this is the state.”

She also admitted that it seemed to her that she was walking slowly, as if in training. “And only after shooting I look – with three misses – the first one! There was a little surprise.”

Season is open. And shock, and surprise, and to dig deeper into yourself – everything will be as it should be. The mood in the current biathlon, apparently, as Victoria Slivko said, is “super.”