2024-01-04 15:00:17
The Russian coach was a few meters away from a possible tragedy at the stage in the Czech Republic, and the organizers blamed it all on the snow.
Photo: © Dmitry Chelyapin / Match TV
The ninth stage of the Biathlon World Cup in 2021 in Nove Mesto, instead of a sports festival, might have ended in a real nightmare. During training before the women’s sprint, a lighting mast fell right onto the track where the athletes were running and the coaches were located. Only a miracle saved people from the tragedy, and the race director from the International Biathlon Union (IBU) awkwardly made excuses.
And this is the vaunted security?
“The organizers are silent, but the case is outrageous”
The 2020/21 season took place at the very peak of the coronavirus. The IBU tried to take all possible measures to ensure that the competitions were held in the most comfortable conditions. However, in the fight once morest the pandemic, the organizers seem to have forgotten regarding other aspects of safety. Such as, for example, the stability of structures on the highway.
On a practice day between races, a lighting mast collapsed onto the track. We were talking regarding a pillar weighing regarding a ton, so one can only imagine with horror what consequences everything risked turning into. Moreover, at first the situation was not made public, because there were no official broadcasts of the training. But the Match TV biathlon team, led by Dmitry Guberniev, found out everything. And later a video of the incident appeared, watching which made me feel uneasy.
“The day before, a light mast fell and almost killed the athlete. Literally. At one time this was the case in Khanty-Mansiysk, a wild scandal arose out of nowhere. But here, in the Czech Republic, it might really kill. Huge mast! The organizers are silent, and the case is outrageous. Biathletes ran away from this mast. There is a video, and it’s just terrible. The athlete saw a huge mast fall on him, and he managed to jump through, because there… I’m even afraid to imagine what would have happened,” Guberniev said on Match TV.
Dmitry Guberniev / Photo: © Denis Bushkovsky / Match TV
“The Czechs are unreal disgraces”
Later, the commentator continued to cover the incident on his social networks and stated that the director of the Czech stadium in Nove Mesto simply refused to communicate.
– You are unreal disgraces, Czechs and the stadium director, simply. Are you all completely stunned? How you would scream, I can’t even imagine if this happened here, for example? We miraculously avoided tragedy! Oh, damn it,” wrote Guberniev.
Nevertheless, the IBU still had to react somehow. Therefore, race director Borat Nunar took the floor, who tried to explain the reason for the incident and assured that in fact the safety issue had been resolved and there was nothing to worry regarding. I would like to see the faces of the athletes and coaches when they read Nunar’s statement.
— On the eve of the women’s sprint race, one of the temporary lighting masts in Nove Mesto fell onto the track. No harm done. After that, we double-checked all the equipment three times to guarantee the safety of the competition,” the flight director of the IBU social network was quoted as saying.
Andrey Prokunin / Photo: © RIA Novosti / Alexey Filippov
“If the mast fell a couple of seconds earlier…”
In addition, the organizers cited melting snow, which caused the tower to become loose. One of those at the epicenter of the events was Russian coach Andrei Prokunin, who was then working with the South Korean national team. According to him, he was a couple of meters away from falling under the mast.
“If the mast had fallen a couple of seconds earlier, we probably wouldn’t be talking here.” I wouldn’t say this is an extreme situation. It’s just that, apparently, the weather conditions are such that it rained heavily at night and, apparently, the support was washed away,” the specialist said on Match TV.
Prokunin did not blame the organizers, calling everything a “coincidence of circumstances.” Perhaps I just didn’t want to offend the IBU and escalate the situation. In any case, the incident was extremely dangerous, and it was still not possible to silence it, despite all efforts.
1704385015
#nightmare #Biathlon #World #Cup #Tons #metal #fell #highway
