2024-01-14 13:59:42
Biathlete Alexander Kornev became the champion of Russia for the first time in his career.
Alexander Kornev / Photo: © Dmitry Chelyapin / Match TV
The first part of the Russian Biathlon Championship in Tchaikovsky turned out to be rich in sensations. Following Bektuganov’s success in the super sprint, the unexpected winner was also in the mass start. Young biathlete Alexander Kornev did not flinch at the decisive moment and snatched victory from the favorites.
And at the finish line I said hello to Johannes Boe.
All the best are in service
The first race of the Alfa-Bank Russian Biathlon Championship ended in a loud sensation. The super sprint in Tchaikovsky was left to the little-known Yamal athlete Alexander Bektuganov. Unfortunately, it was not possible to consolidate our success in the team race. The quartet from the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug took only eighth place.
Alexander entered the big mass start distance as number one. Behind him stood all the recognized favorites of Russian biathlon, who did not miss the first contact race of the championship.
Alexander Kornev left the start number three. For the 22-year-old biathlete, bronze in the super sprint was already a great achievement. At the adult level, he won only one race: last season he became first in the sprint at the Russian Cup stage.
Alexander Kornev / Photo: © Dmitry Chelyapin / Match TV
“I became a little friendly with the wind”
The two starting laps went off without incident, and the best athletes approached the shooting range in a dense group. But not everyone’s first shooting went well. Alexey Vagin missed three times and dropped out of the fight for medals. Kornev also made one mistake, dropping to 11th place.
Supersprint hero Bektuganov fell back to 17th position, although he shot zero. Eduard Latypov became the leader. Four people left the shooting range at once following the Bashkir athlete: Alexander Povarnitsyn, Karim Khalili, Ivan Tulatin and Pyotr Pashchenko.
On the second prone, a strong wind sent the entire group of leaders racing through penalty loops. The first person to shoot zero was Vasily Tomshin, but by that time Tulatin, Pashchenko and Latypov had run their allotted penalty distance. Kornev once more failed to make a zero, and he opened the second ten on the scoresheet following leaving the stadium. Matvey Eliseev mightn’t keep up the pace and retired towards the middle of the distance.
In the difficult conditions of the first stand, Tomshin showed his best side. Vasily left the stadium as a leader. Povarnitsyn was 4.6 seconds behind him, having completed one penalty loop. The third position was for Khalili. He was 7.5 seconds behind the leader. Kornev finally avoided any mistakes.
Photo: © Dmitry Chelyapin / Match TV
During the decisive shooting, Alexander demonstrated incredible character. Before the third milestone he was still in 11th place, and following the 20th shot he was a leader with a significant lead. He was the only one in the top six to shoot accurately on the standing position twice.
The Udmurt athlete crossed the finish line 15.4 seconds faster than Latypov, who finished the race with icicles instead of a beard. Third place went to Povarnitsyn (+24.8 sec). Success at Tchaikovsky was the greatest for Kornev. For the first time in his career, he won gold at the Russian Championship and at the finish repeated the winning gesture of the Norwegian Johannes Boe, doing a step-up.
“My coach and I worked many times in such windy weather. I understood that I needed to work on every shot, I became a little closer to the wind,” Kornev revealed the secret of success on Match TV.
Next week, the biathletes will move to Izhevsk, where they will compete at the fourth stage of the Alfa-Bank Russian Cup.
Watch live broadcasts of races at the Alfa-Bank Russian Biathlon Cup stages on the Match TV channel, as well as on the websites matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru.
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