Slivko blissed out in the marathon, becoming the best biathlete of the season: “I wanted him”

The biathletes finished the season with a real survival race. Thirty kilometers, eight firing lines – the distance for the most fearless. There were 19 brave ones at the marathon of the Russian Championship. Before the start, Irina Kazakevich said: all the girls will fight, but the favorite is Victoria Slivko. And here Slivko had no choice but to agree and win.

“Now I want to lie down and not get up for a couple of hours,” said seer Irina Kazakevich after the finish. And even those who did not run the marathon, but only watched it, could agree to lie down. Even nervous energy without movement was spent a lot.

The track is the most difficult, Uvat continued, as in the men’s marathon the day before, testing the athletes with the heat of the weather and the problems associated with it. But – got involved in a marathon, go. After the first frontier, Anastasia Egorova, the winner of last year, was in the lead. Vika Slivko was less than 10 seconds behind, and Irina Kazakevich – 15, however, further on she was already significantly thrown back by her own shooting.

Biathlon loves surprises, but this time three biathletes kept the lead until the very end, however, swapping Slivko and Egorova. Although to say that everything went smoothly or even tedious, it is impossible. At the end of the marathon, Kazakevich, who fell behind, could overtake Yegorova in the fight for silver. But the shooting decided to leave everything in its place, sending Irina to penalty loops.

Victoria Slivko made only four misses, Kazakevich had ten, Egorova had eleven. Nastya lost two minutes to the leader, Irina – already closer to three.

Even before the marathon, Victoria Slivko was charged with interest. After all, usually during the days of the marathon I had to run on the IBU Cup, the distance of 30 km passed without it, leaving curiosity: how would it be there? There was a desire, and now there is an opportunity, so the question: to run or not to run, did not have relevance.

Curiosity, character and preparation allowed me to cope with the marathon, having endured to the end, at the same time not very upsetting at the borders. True, the latter is in comparison with other athletes and from the point of view of those who watched the race. The biathletes had to walk for miles in rain and snow, which made the track more and more difficult, and the girls more vulnerable. But Slivko herself said that four misses is a lot, she is unhappy.

Not to rejoice at the first place – it would be too much even for a maximalist. “I felt confident and strong in myself, so I rode alone without any problems.” And Vika did not hide it: the day before she saw how the winner of the men’s marathon Nikita Porshnev was awarded a beautiful Cup for the victory. For the sake of victory and the Cup, which she “really wanted”, Slivko even went for advice to Anton Babikov, who also ran a marathon for the first time. Babikov shared not only advice, but also food.

“The most important thing is that I didn’t think about winning: I just went out and got high.” So Victoria Slivko won the final race of the season, and also became the best biathlete of the season. “This bonus at the end of the season will warm my soul and motivate me for the next season,” Vika said. Slivko became the best athlete at the end of the season, winning the overall standings of the RRF among women. In the 2018/19 season, the athlete competed at the IBU Cup, where she won the Big Crystal Globe, but she says that now she has received even more emotions.

Anastasia Egorova, the winner of the marathon last year, complained after the finish: she could not cope with the shooting, so she missed the victory. She said that that golden marathon for her was not held in the spring, but in the middle of spring, the conditions were not so exhausting. Although it seemed to her that the track would be much worse, thanks to the organizers who tried to squeeze the maximum out of the conditions.

Irina Kazakevich smiled with all her might and admitted that she was very tired. “I didn’t think it would be this hard.” She has already run a marathon, there is something to compare with, but before “it didn’t cut off like that.” In Uvat, the last three or four laps seemed to her: just to reach.

That milestone that could change the color of Kazakevich’s medal – from bronze to silver – did not happen clean in shooting, because, as she believes, the wind blew, and she really wanted to turn the tide. “It turned out two penalty loops, we went out alone and so we went to the end of the distance.”

Natalia Shevchenko also ran her first biathlon marathon, having switched from cross-country skiing only a year ago and became the opening of the season. Before the race, she assumed that she should cope, although long distances were difficult for her in cross-country skiing, sprinting was the element. But somehow she still ran 30 km at the Russian cross-country skiing championship. “I think it will be interesting to see how I deal with the firing lines, after all, there are eight of them.”

The biathlete, who impressed everyone with her accuracy of shooting in the season, picked up a rifle quite recently, had a lot of misses: thirteen. Shevchenko could not qualify for medals, but entered the top six biathletes. After the race, she stated that it was terribly hard. “It started raining, it started snowing, the track crashed and we crashed.” But – and this seemed to cover up physical fatigue: “Many people supported me along the track, and I was smiling, everyone saw it. I’m happy”.