The missing bronze

Russians third in mixed relay

Russian biathletes won the bronze medal in mixed doubles at the World Championships in Ostersund, Sweden. Their gap from the winners - the German quartet - was more than a minute. Yesterday the Belarusians created a real sensation when they managed to climb to the second step of the podium. Having lost 52.6 seconds to the shooting skiers from Germany, the quartet from this country pushed their more eminent rivals - the contenders for awards - off the prize podium.

After the disastrous mixed doubles of our athletes at last year’s World Championships in Antholz, where the Russians were only ninth, the current “bronze” of Ostersund can to some extent be considered as a step forward. Part of the consolation can be the fact that the Russian quartet beat the current world champions in this race - the Swedes, who finished fourth. However, apparently, the Russians were counting on a different result in the mixed relay. On the eve of the race, shooting coach Andrei Gerbulov told a correspondent of the official website of the International Biathlon Union that his players would fight for gold medals. Indeed, given the previous merits of the Russians in mixed doubles, this was to be expected.

Let us remind you that the mixed relay appeared relatively recently on the schedule of biathlon championships - three years ago. Then the quartet Olga Pyleva, Svetlana Ishmuratova, Nikolai Kruglov and Ivan Tcherezov became the first winner of gold awards. The next year, domestic athletes repeated their success, and yesterday they added the missing “bronze” to the collection of gold and silver awards (two Russian fours started at the 2005 World Championships).

On the eve of yesterday's race, several teams were named among the likely candidates for medals in mixed doubles. These include the Swedes, who both last year and this year fielded the strongest lineup - Helena Jonsson, Anna Karin Olofsson, who, by the way, is four months pregnant, Bjorn Ferry and Carl Johan Bergman. In addition to the Swedes, teams from Russia, Germany and Norway appeared. But if the latter relied on youth, giving team leaders Bjoerndalen and Hanevold the opportunity to rest, the Germans settled on a foursome that combines a fusion of experience and youth. World championship debutante Sabrina Buchholz and Andreas Birnbacher were joined by the venerable Magdalena Neuner and Michael Greis. Three-time Olympic champion Mickey Grice missed the sprint and pursuit race in Ostersund due to a cold. Nevertheless, all the above circumstances did not prevent biathletes from Germany from bringing their country the first “gold” in the mixed relay.

Russian coaches initially planned to enter Svetlana Sleptsova, Ekaterina Yuryeva, Nikolai Kruglov and Dmitry Yaroshenko. However, on the day of the race, it was decided to replace Yuryeva with championship debutant Oksana Neupokoeva. The President of the Russian Biathlon Union, Alexander Tikhonov, even the day before the start, spoke out against Yurieva’s candidacy, since at this championship the athlete’s shoulders had a rather large load on her shoulders: six races over nine days. Tikhonov proposed the candidacy of young Yana Romanova, but this option did not pass. An hour before the start, the coaches informed Neupokoeva that she was included in the mixed doubles team.

There was no doubt that Sleptsova would be able to run the starting stage well. The athlete from Khanty-Mansiysk earned herself a reputation as a relay finisher, and her starting number was a fake option. Despite an unsuccessful start in Ostersund (6th in the sprint and 8th in the pursuit), this time Svetlana showed perfect shooting and finished first in her segment. Neupokoeva started with 10 seconds to spare. However, after the first shooting range, where Oksana was flawless, the experienced Neiner took the lead. And after Neupokoeva’s two misses in standing shooting, the gap between the Russian team and the German team was almost a minute.

But even in this situation, there was hope that it would not be difficult for the experienced Kruglov to stay behind the leaders. But four misses and a penalty loop in prone, plus two misses in standing, finally “buried” the Russians’ plans for a third championship title in the mixed relay. Starting eighth at the last stage, Russian Dmitry Yaroshenko managed to get ahead of his closest competitors, but missed twice in the last shooting. Nevertheless, he finished third, providing our team with the sixth medal in the team’s collection.

Olga ERMOLINA