Our boys won the medal despite a broken pole and shooting problems. Great race before the Olympics.
The composition of the relay for the last race before the Olympics, the coaches of the Russian national team chose a very interesting one – he started Anton Babikov, continued Daniil Serokhvostov, then Alexander Loginov, paver – Eduard Latypov.
None of the positions raised questions, except for the last one. Of course, Latypov needs practice before the Games, he missed more than a month, and yesterday’s mass start (25th place) only emphasized his not outstanding form. But should he be trusted with the decisive stage of the relay race? The race showed – it was worth it!
Babikov’s stage was not without adventures
The main rival today was the Norwegian team. Supercomposition in the face of Legrade, Be-senior, Be-junior and Christiansen. And in the relay standings, by the way, we had the same number of points with the Norwegians, another intrigue.
But already at the first stage, adventures began. Babikov worked flawlessly in the “lying” position, but on the second lap the hearts of the fans skipped a beat – during the ascent, the German Rees stepped on the Russian’s stick and broke it. However, the situation was immediately corrected – with the speed of the wind one of our trainers caught up with him and thrust the missing attribute into his hand. In fairness, it should be said that Babikov did not let his rivals go far.
It happened later, after the second frontier. On the “rack” Anton stormed, the wind broke out, he needed two additional cartridges. As a result, Babikov became seventh with a lag of 15 seconds, and by the time the baton was passed, the gap had grown to 28 seconds.
Serokhvostov overtook everyone, including the elder Be
Serokhvostov immediately rushed to catch up with the leading Norwegian and French from his sixth position. On the prone, Daniil worked calmly, slowly, and it paid off – the Russian hit all the targets without additional rounds and left the shooting range fourth, reducing the gap to 11 seconds.
On the stand, the 22-year-old native of Barnaul made one mistake, but again, this did not greatly affect the positions. Serokhvostov spent the last round with the Frenchman and the German in the fight for the intermediate vice-leadership and lost it miserably. Guigonnat gave some kind of phenomenal spurt and broke away, and the backlog from Norway was 13 seconds. Daniil did not flash his shot, but overtook everyone, including Tarja Be. This certainly inspires optimism.
Loginov is going through acclimatization. Because of her, he failed his stage
Loginov entered the track, and somewhere in front loomed Be Jr., who is now showing the best move among all biathletes. Naturally, the Norwegian approached the prone with an advantage, plus he worked like a machine at the turn. But Sasha almost went to the circle, closed the targets of eight rounds. Russia rolled back to fourth place, and the gap increased to 50 seconds.
It was not possible to catch up with the Norwegian. Be approached the “rack” in splendid isolation and left it in the same way. Alexander arrived much later, and then he also made two mistakes. And Sasha delayed with shots. On the last lap, Be’s advantage only grew, as a result, Sasha passed the baton fourth with a delay of 1 minute 25 seconds. As our athlete said after the race, it’s all about acclimatization.
Latypov is back! Edward showed a phenomenal finish
Latypov, whose finisher position raised questions, found himself in a difficult situation. To win at least bronze, you had to at least shoot cleanly. The rivals were modest – the Frenchman Perro and the German Fratzscher, Edik’s move is definitely better.
But already in prone, the Russian, who missed a month, decently smeared it and went to the penalty loop. On the “rack” Latypov made one mistake and rushed to catch up with the German and the Frenchman. Russia was separated from the medal by 13 seconds.
The backlog was decent, but on the last lap Latypov showed himself to be a real leader! Edik powerfully covered the final hundreds of meters of the distance, catching up and overtaking his rivals. The Frenchman surrendered for another 500 meters, and the German fought to the last. But there were no equals to Latypov at the finish line today!
The Russians were unlucky in shooting today. We made 12 misses, went to the circle. But our guys are looking great. One jerk of Latypov is worth something. Yes, we lost to the Norwegians, and the gap between us is now 6 points. But we are higher than France, Germany and Belarus, which is nice.
It was the last race before the Olympics. We hope that the rifles of the Russians in Beijing will work as well as the legs of their owners.
World Cup. Antholz (Italy)
Relay race. Men. 4×7.5 km
1. Norway (Sturla Holm Lagreid, Tarjei Be, Johannes Be, Vetle Shostad Christiansen) – 1:12.14.7 (0 penalties + 4 extra rounds)
2. Russia (Anton Babikov, Daniil Serokhvostov, Alexander Loginov, Eduard Latypov) — +1.57.2 (1+12)
3. Germany (Roman Rees, Philipp Horn, David Zobel, Lukas Fratzscher) – +2.04.4 (0+4)