At the third stage of the Biathlon World Cup in Hochfilzen, the men’s sprint participants were the first to start. The Russian national team this time did not look as confident as a week ago, but there was also progress. MK-Sport tells the details.
The stage in Hochfilzen for biathletes was supposed to be the first “worker”. It was at the starting stage of the World Cup that one could still refer to nerves, pre-start chores and a smooth transition from the pre-season to real starts. (In any case, of all the explanations for the sitcom that Russian biathletes staged in Ostersund, this is the only one that makes any sense). And starting from Hochfilzen, such excuses should not work: the World Cup – and with it the season – has really started, it’s time to show everything that you learned and what you worked out in the summer.
Sprint is the perfect format for this. Everything happens quickly and clearly: in 25-30 minutes you need to have time to start, shoot at two lines and roll to the finish line. No problems with tactics, no pitfalls and complicated plans – just show what you are capable of.
It turned out to be interesting to watch our team in this format. Here Alexander Povarnitsyn , for example, is able to run very fast, as it turned out. But with the concentration on shooting, there are obvious problems – two misses on the first line and one on the second. If in the sprint (or in the relay) you bring yourself three penalty circles, then no speed will save you.
Or Karim Khalili – everything is fine with the shooting, he closed all the targets. But with the speed of the move, there was some trouble: already from the second shooting, he left with a lag of half a minute from the leaders. If it were a relay race, we would have scolded Khalili out loud for such a thing – how can you slow down like that?
Or Daniil Serokhvostov , a newcomer to our relay and one of the main characters of Ostersund. This time he turned out to be not at all as good as a week ago – one mistake in the first line and three at once in the second. Vasily Tomshin was slightly better , but only slightly – he had two penalties in the standing position.
Or Eduard Latypov . It seemed that he did everything right, he walked well, he shot clean lying down. But on the counter he suddenly jerked, made a mistake, then began to aim the target for a long time and thoughtfully – in general, a penalty loop and a lot of wasted time. After the finish, Eduard thoughtfully noted that, probably, it’s all about the height, because of which something was wrong with the reflexes in shooting. So there is a chance that tomorrow the reflexes will be returned.
But Russia has Alexander Loginov . Probably, if someone needs proof of the existence of a great biathlon tradition, then it consists precisely in the fact that in our country, in almost every generation there is at least one truly elite biathlete. They come from different regions, work with different coaches, but the main thing is that they are born again and again. In the current generation, this is Loginov – if you compare him with the rest of the Russians, you can see that this is a person from a different league. He spends more than a second (not 15) on a shot, he hits with an excellent percentage, he is not inferior to any of the leaders with a move – in general, he is a man without weak points.
Loginov was almost not mistaken in Hochfilzen. Kept the pace, shot fast like a machine gunner (and only one miss in the stance), and walked along the track without slump. And Alexander has not yet gotten into shape – as he himself spoke about before the start of the season. He only picks up speed, only regains his usual speed, but even in this state, Alexander was in the lead for three quarters of the race. In the end, he was still bypassed by German Johannes Kühn , Finn Martin Ponsiluoma and Belarusian Anton Smolsky, but this just does not frighten him at all: Alexander already looks better than a week ago. His main goal is the Olympics, and if Loginov continues to gain shape like this, then he will be on the podium in Beijing.
And, by the way, Alexander is not alone. Very near Tyro Be near Quentin Fillon Maya – they obviously similar plans for the season. The more interesting it will be to look further. The pursuit race will start tomorrow at 14:15 Moscow time. It looks like it will be hot there.
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