Eh, and we have already dispersed in recent days in our champion appetites. And so tangibly was the “golden double” from Alexander Loginov, who opened the victory path for Russia in the sprint of the World Cup stage in Oberhof. But the pursuit has cooled down for now: a double did not happen, Alexander, leading to the last line, was left without medals at all. We will not call the incident an accident. “This is an experience,” Loginov said.
The stage of the Biathlon World Cup in Oberhof returned Russia’s faith in the national team and rewarded it with emotions that simply tore the fans for three days. On the first day, Alexander Loginov won the sprint, on the second Babikov and Reztsova won the supermixt. And yet – Maxim Tsvetkov showed himself in all his glory , even if that mixed relay did not bring an award.
And now – the pursuit race. Alexander Loginov went to the track under the first number. The second ran away Frenchman Emilien Jacquelin (lag 7 sec), the third – Norwegian Sturla Legrade (lag 15 sec). Anton Babikov – sixth (23 seconds), Daniil Serokhvostov – eighth (26 seconds), Alexander Povarnitsyn – fortieth (1:48), Karim Khalili – forty-fifth (1:57), Maxim Tsvetkov – fifty-second (2:05).
And everything was not just good, but wonderful: Loginov was rushing ahead, the rest of our biathletes were playing for seconds. Maxim Tsvetkov played 40 positions at once, showed the fifth move! Before the stage in Oberhof, Tsvetkov did not play at the World Cup for three seasons – since January 2019. In the pursuit, he was let down only by the last shot at the last line.
After the finish, Maxim admitted that it was hard enough on the track. But I understood that those who shot to zero, win back a lot at once. “I almost succeeded, but at the last turn I delayed with a shot: it was spinning in my head that there would be zero, so I was mistaken.” And Maxim asked himself an excellent question for the Russian ear on the eve of the Olympic Games: I wonder – have I ever shown such a move in my life or not?
And the winning scenario for Loginov broke the last line. True, even at the third stage, he manually reloaded the rifle twice, made one mistake. And his lead from second place at that moment was reduced almost to a widow: from a minute to 33 seconds.
But Alexander approached the last shooting with a significant advantage of about 50 seconds. Three misses! And more and more depended on the shooting of rivals, and they turned out to be accurate: Fillon Maillet and Sebastian Samuelsson did not miss. After the penalties, Alexander entered the race, 20 seconds behind and fought for bronze with the Norwegians Legrade and Tarjei Be. Failed.
Everyone can see the form in which Sasha is, but, alas, everyone saw how he took the medal from himself. Loginov said that he managed to have a good New Year’s camp. And the entire preparatory stage was productive. And he felt that back in December in each race it was possible to fight for medals, but something was missing. Therefore, I am very “glad that the implementation is now underway.”
Shooting coach Maksim Maksimov , commenting on Loginov’s mistakes, said that the wind was not critical during his shooting, the athlete preferred to shoot fast. Alexander himself preferred not to shift the blame to the wind: he failed, and in any case, these are mistakes that “at my athletic age can no longer be allowed.”
Four Russians are in the top 15 of this Oberhof pursuit. Alexander Loginov is fifth, Anton Babikov is tenth, Daniil Serokhvostov is eleventh, Maxim Tsvetkov is twelfth, Karim Khalili is twentieth, Alexander Povarnitsyn is thirty-sixth. Loginov, Tsvetkov and Serokhvostov entered the top 10 in terms of speed.
Anton Babikov proves that his return to the World Cup after the beautiful gold in the single mixed relay, won in Oberhof the day before with Christina Reztsova, is no coincidence. He finished in the top 10 with four penalties, three of them in the third shooting. I got offended at myself, but I still haven’t seen any mistakes: “The feeling of resentment towards myself is small, because one line is like that … It’s not even clear where I missed.” And he admitted that he felt strength during the race, on the last lap he ran away from Jacquelin, “and this is definitely a step forward, we will continue to improve”.
There is no medal, there is annoyance. But these last words are the main thing that you want to remember. And even more important is the fact that these words are believed, they are not in an empty place.
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