Reztsova and Loginov returned to the podium again: “Touch yourself and understand”

The SBR spoke about the prologue like this: we will consult with the team captains, and, of course, we will not force anyone to shoot or run in the cold. And so they did. We consulted and canceled it. The sprint races were postponed from December 9 to December 6; in Tyumen they expect minus 30 degrees by the end of the week.

In fact, the stages in Khanty-Mansiysk were not held in the most comfortable conditions for the biathletes either. True, this did not stop the leaders. Eduard Latypov and Kristina Reztsova returned to the podium. As well as a serious breakthrough for him by Kirill Bazhin or the announcement of Anastasia Grishina.

If we look completely ahead, and today the creation of a reserve is the most pressing issue (although it has never been of secondary importance), then the emergence of young athletes gives hope. Two Nastyas – Grishina and Zyryanova – are beginning to master the adult biathlon roads. They run fast and shoot just as fast. Zyryanova ended up in the top 6 of the sprint, and Grishina ended up second in the mass start.

But Kristina Reztsova again became the main character. The return of the team leader after the birth of his second daughter took place. Reztsova won the women’s 12 km mass start. (Grishina was 11.6 seconds behind her, Ekaterina Noskova was third, which can also be considered a return to her former podium positions.)

After the victory, Christina, in her characteristic confident manner, stated that she knew: “this is my day, this is how everything turned out, I was determined to fight to the end.” And she only complained about the weather: it was really very cold, and the last laps turned out to be unbearable, the wind on the bridge was “impossibly blowing.”

And the day before, in the pursuit race, during the last shooting, Reztsova had an emergency: “Somewhere during the race, apparently, the clip fell out. I asked for a spare one, they gave me one, but again it wasn’t charged.” Christina took 13th place.

Both the sprint and the pursuit of the second stage were won by Natalia Shevchenko, a former skier who made a big splash in biathlon last season. In the sprint, she was ahead of Kristina Reztsova, who became second, by 15.1 seconds (Natalia Gerbulova was third). In the pursuit race, with two failures, she won against Elizaveta Kaplina, who became second, and Anastasia Goreeva, who took bronze. She herself admitted that she is now in good shape and has reserves. “You can’t take away your skiing past. I was a good skier, which is probably why I show such fast seconds.”

But in the mass start she failed to repeat the first place: two misses in the first prone, and then three more in the second shooting… Here Kristina Reztsova used her reserves. Before the start, the Olympic medalist said that during the season she intended to “feel herself and understand” how she would generally feel and what she was capable of on the ski track and shooting range after the birth of her second daughter. We state: she touched it, and we understood everything.

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Kirill Bazhin: two relay victories, gold in the pursuit race, as a result – he is running out of hands with Eduard Latypov in the overall standings. But Eduard himself didn’t just serve his time in Khanty-Mansiysk.

First there was sprint gold: Latypov took it for himself, Evgeniy Sidorov was sensationally second, Anton Smolsky was third. By the way, Bazhin was close here too – he became fourth.

And in the final stage – mass start gold. Eduard won, despite minus 18, with a piercing wind, which “caused great inconvenience and hampered movement, no matter how you insulated yourself.” And he immediately admitted: there is competition at the Russian Cup, it is high, he likes it. Because you have to fight without sparing yourself, and this is how progress happens.

But the cold is of course no help. Latypov told what he felt in the winning race: the muscles did not obey well, the energy was gone. I had difficulty mobilizing myself during the last part of the distance. By the way, Daniil Serokhvostov, who missed the victory in the mass start at the last shooting (he was the leader and made three mistakes), also spoke about this very thing: he ran and thought how cold it was. At the same time, however, he admitted that he was ashamed of such shooting, and in the end he became sixth.

Danya will decide every time before the race whether he should compete in cold weather in the future. Because “immunity is not the best,” and allergic asthma “doesn’t help either.” And he also remembers how last year, after the frost in Uvat, it was hard to breathe for a long time.

And another return to the podium took place in biathlon at the Russian Cup: Alexander Loginov became second in the pursuit. He ran through the stages, picking up the pace: at the first stage in the mixed relay race he was fifth with Victoria Slivko, Ulyana Nigmatullina and Alexander Povarnitsyn. At the second stage in the sprint – eighth. And in the pursuit race he came second, finding himself between Bazhin and Latypov. And then he smiled contentedly, making the comment: “How can I compare with the collections? I am a purely regional athlete and am content with second place.” Loginov’s smile after a long absence and admitting that he had thoughts about leaving is wonderful.

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And yet, the SBR does not plan to cancel, as a prologue, the stage of the Russian Biathlon Cup in Tyumen due to frost (and the temperature is expected to drop to minus 31 degrees). The teams are coming to Tyumen, the sprint has already been postponed, but the decision for each race will be made on the day of the disciplines.

It remains to wish everyone perseverance and wait for new advice that recently filled the information space after the story of the Swedish skier Kalle Halvarsson about frostbite on a delicate part of his body (with the same minus 18) at the World Cup in Ruka.

“The pain was unreal. Hell, I had to lay there for 10 minutes before everything warmed up. Can I describe the pain? No. Who knows will understand. I can only say that this is the worst thing you can experience in life,” the journalists did not spare the skier. Recommendations on how to avoid the problem poured in from all sides: more than one pair of panties, a newspaper and all that. The most businesslike was the Norwegian Petter Northug, who recognized the problem and confirmed: he tested it himself. “The trick is to have windproof boxers, and also wrap the area with special tape and lubricate it with silicone ointment. I found out about this a year after that episode, so this is my advice to Calla.”

The Swede, after his experience, suggested: why not set the threshold for starts at minus 15 degrees? (Currently 20.) “I think this will make life easier for many athletes.”