Dishonorable Escort

The Russians accompanied their rivals to the medals

The last discipline in which Russia could claim a medal on Tuesday was 1,500-meter speed skating. However, Russian runners were unable to compete with the Italian medalists Enrico Fabris and the Americans Shaney Davis and Chad Hedrick, who won gold, silver and bronze, respectively.

We mainly counted on Evgeniy Lalenkov. Let these hopes were not connected with a gold medal. “Today, only Evgeniy Lalenkov will be able to compete for one of the Olympic medals, most likely bronze. His seventh place last Saturday at a kilometer distance showed that the athlete is in good shape and can aspire to more,” Vladimir Komarov, president of the Russian Skating Union, told the All Sport agency before the start. However, the hopes of Komarov and the Russian fans were not justified: Lalenkov generally remained outside the top twenty.

And the best among Russian athletes at this distance was Ivan Skobrev, who took the start together with the Norwegian Even Vetten. Ivan, having been a little late at the start, increased his pace as the race progressed, and on the last lap he managed to show a very decent time. For several more races, more famous skaters could not surpass Skobrev’s result. And only the owner of the Oval Lingotto, Enrico Fabris, was able to catch Ivan’s time. And much more - almost for a second. As a result, Fabrice became the winner of the competition. But first he had to worry a lot until the favorites made their attempts.

Evgeny Lalenkov was counted among them. Running alongside the Russian was Chad Hedrick. Quite a decent neighborhood if you count on a medal. However, Lalenkov was unable to maintain the pace proposed by the American, and by the end of the race, realizing that this Olympics was not for him, he even stopped trying. In turn, Hadrick was unable to show a better time than Fabrice, and he could only wait for the last race.

In it, African-American Shawnee Davis, who had already won gold in Turin at a distance of 1000 m, was not averse to becoming a two-time Olympic champion. Together with him, Alexander Kibalko entered the track - Russia's last hope in these competitions. However, Davis did not give the Russian a single chance, and in the end there was only one question left: whether he would be able to get ahead of the Italian. Fortunately, the tribune failed. And Enrico Fabris won Italy’s fourth gold at these Games.

Andrey VDOVIN