The injustice was corrected, but the sediment remained.
While the Norwegians routinely take almost all the medals at the World Cup, our skiers cut each other in domestic competitions. Despite the more modest status of the competition and not the highest prize money, Russian skiers fight in every race and attract the attention of the public with bright performances.
The federation does not lag behind the skiers, throwing up new information occasions every now and then. So, suddenly it turned out that the FLGR did not follow their own rules all season.
Most affected by the mistakes of responsible persons Alexander Bolshunovwho was simply robbed of leadership.
“There really was a mistake”
Most of the Russian Cup is already over, the sixth stage has just finished in Syktyvkar. But only now it turned out that the responsible persons grossly violated their own rules, adopted before the start of the winter season.
The thing is that from the first stage, points in the overall standings were awarded according to last year’s rules. But in the summer, the presidium of the FLGR approved a new regulation, which changed the scoring scheme for the first 14 places in each race.
In the new version of the document, skiers who took places immediately following the winner received more points than last season. Moreover, the difference in some positions reached four points. The telegram channel “Ski classics” reported regarding the discrepancy between the situation and the real distribution of places.
“We turned to the FLGR for clarification, and as a result, by joint efforts, we found out that there really was a mistake and from the very beginning of the 2022/23 season, points should have been counted according to a new scheme,” the entry says.
Photo: © Dmitry Chelyapin / Match TV
Bolshunov is the best once more
The Ski Racing Federation had to urgently recalculate all the ratings. In the overall standings for men, there were no significant changes. The top ten remained the same in the distance standings.
But the sprinters have undergone major changes. Alexander Terentiev lost the first position. Instead, the sprint standings are now headed by Alexander Bolshunov, who received additional points. San Sanych is one point ahead of the previous leader.
For women, the changes affected the top three in the overall standings. Maria Istomina moved up to third place. Now she shares this position with Ekaterina Smirnova. There have been changes in the standings of sprinters and distance athletes, but they are minor and do not concern the top three.
It is unlikely that the mistake of the organizers will seriously affect the final distribution of places, but the very fact of such neglect by the federation of its own rules is at least bewildering. For the sake of what to change the regulation, if no one monitors its observance at all?
The only positive in this stupid situation is that the mistake was revealed in the middle of the season, and not at the end of it. It is difficult to imagine with what emotions the skiers would have taken the loss of positions if the negligence of the organizers was revealed following the final stage of the Russian Cup.
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