Translated material
Empty in the house
At the stage in Khanty-Mansiysk, our biathletes were left without awards
The international season for shooting skiers has ended. Biathletes were the last representatives of winter sports to compete in natural conditions for the World Cup. In other Olympic winter disciplines, where wrestling takes place outdoors, all trophies were awarded a week or two earlier.Despite the fact that the ninth stage of the World Cup was home for the Russians, our biathletes did not win a single medal in Khanty-Mansiysk. After the February World Championships in Korea, three cup stages took place - on the Olympic track in Vancouver, in Trondheim, Norway and on Ugra. Apart from Olga Zaitseva, no one from our team made it to the podium.
The main intrigue of the competition in Khanty-Mansiysk was the competition between foreign athletes for victory in the overall World Cup. Norwegian Ole Einar Bjoerndalen immediately made it clear to his closest pursuer Tomas Sikora who the true master of the state of affairs in world biathlon is. In the sprint, the Scandinavian won silver, while the Pole finished in 18th time. After this, the Norwegian was practically unattainable in the points standings. Bjoerndalen confirmed his high status with another “silver” in the pursuit race and “bronze” in the final mass start. And these three men's starts were won by the German Arnd Peiffer, the Norwegian Emil Egle Svendsen and the Austrian Simon Eder. The best result among the large group of Russians who took advantage of the additional master's quota for participation was shown by Evgeniy Ustyugov - seventh place in the pursit.
The final position in the overall World Cup standings is as follows: Bjoerndalen - 1080 points, Sikora - 870, Svendsen - 844, followed by German Michael Greis (804) and only fifth Maxim Chudov (780). In the Nations Cup, the Russian team, which lost a lot of relay points after the results of the races involving Dmitry Yaroshenko, who was caught doping, were canceled, was classified in an unusual sixth position. Norway received the trophy. Austria's second place, beating Germany, is the main surprise of the past season.
Among women in Khanty-Mansiysk, the highest awards were received exclusively by the Germans Tina Bachmann (sprint), Magdalena Neuner (pursuit) and Simone Hauswald, known in past years as Denkinger (mass start). The ceiling for the Russian women was the sixth place of the debutant of the national team, 21-year-old Olga Vilukhina, in the sprint race. The Big World Cup returns to Sweden after six years. Helena Jonsson continued the glorious tradition of Magdalena Forsberg, who reigned supreme in this trophy for six seasons in a row. True, in those days Sweden did not even have female biathletes for the relay four, but now the Scandinavians have a full-fledged national team. By the way, Bjoerndalen is now equal to Forsberg, he also has six major cup trophies, and the Norwegian began collecting this collection back in 1998.
Jonsson and German Kati Wilhelm earned the same number of points in the overall standings - 952 each, but the Swede is at the top in the final table of ranks in terms of additional indicators. Helena won four stages, the shooting skier from Germany - three. Before the mass start, the red-haired German was in the lead, but in the most spectacular individual race, Jonsson finished second, shooting cleanly on all four shooting ranges. Wilhelm faltered on the last stand - two misfires at once and a farewell to her hopes of winning the World Cup. Norwegian Tora Berger is in third position in the final classification of the season, Olga Zaitseva is sixth, and Svetlana Sleptsova (12th) and Olympic champion Olga Medvedtseva (17th) are lower than, for example, Romanian Eva Tofalvi.
The season is not over for the Russians. Tomorrow the national championship starts on the track near the village of Uvat, Tyumen region. True, its sporting significance is not entirely clear. Moreover, according to the results of last winter, the main star of our women’s team, Olga Zaitseva, was exempted from participation in the national championship. It seems that based on the results of this championship, Russian teams should be formed for centralized preparation for the Olympic season, but, probably, the main criterion should still be considered the quality of performances on the international stage, and not the internal April starts.
With the onset of truly warm days and the complete disappearance of snow, the topic of biathlon is unlikely to be forgotten. The Russian side has yet to receive a full and detailed report from the anti-doping laboratory in Lausanne (Switzerland) on the positive samples of ex-World Cup leader Ekaterina Yuryeva, Albina Akhatova and Dmitry Yaroshenko. It is very significant that a recent similar case with skier Natalya Matveeva, who was caught using erythropoietin, caused almost no public outcry, while the situation with biathletes was discussed at various levels - from senior government officials to ordinary housewives. Biathlon has left ski racing far behind in popularity and entertainment; it’s just that few people are interested in speed skiing anymore.
In winter sports, only the world championships in men's curling and ice hockey had medals left uncontested. Girls competed to aim rounded rocks across ice last week in Korea. The Russians, with a negative balance of victories and defeats (5--6) at the World Championships, were classified into the 2010 White Olympics. The selection criterion was the sum of points earned in accordance with the places taken at the World Championships over three seasons (2007-2009). Our girls in the Land of Morning Freshness finished in 7th place out of a dozen participants, added six points to their treasury and can already think about Vancouver. However, the previously available nine points would have been enough. The teams that find themselves outside the line of applicants for Olympic awards have very poor results.
In a few days, the Croatian Zagreb will host the world championship in an exotic non-Olympic event for us - team synchronized ice skating. This is quite an acquired taste. Last year, a similar tournament in Budapest (Hungary) brought together 22 teams, with Russia fielding two squads of 20 girls each. The best result was eighth place, Finnish figure skaters became champions.