Translated material
December milestone
The pause in the World Cup will be filled with re-election of the head of the RBU
Biathletes of the Russian national team, having successfully performed at three stages of the World Cup, received a short break. Exactly half of the competition cycle is behind us before the February World Championships in Italy - three more cup stages will take place in January, after which the main start of the season will take place. Despite the pause, there is no sign of relaxation among the key figures of Russian biathlon. On the contrary, everyone is looking forward with interest - some with hope, and some with anxiety in their souls - to the reporting and re-election conference of the Russian Biathlon Union (RBR), scheduled for December 25th. Its results determine the direction in which this most TV-rated winter sport in our country will develop.Despite the fact that the composition of the team has changed greatly due to the departure of Pavel Rostovtsev from big sport and the temporary absence of four Olympic champions for various reasons, the results at the past stages of the World Cup have been excellent. The women had “gold” and “silver” in the relay, Irina Malgina’s victory in the individual race, the men had the same team achievements, three second places for Dmitry Yaroshenko, “silver” for Maxim Chudov and “bronze” for Ivan Tcherezov.
I was especially pleased with the women's team, because due to significant personnel losses they had to compete with almost the second team from last year. And head coach Valery Polkhovsky managed to do the almost impossible - the relay four still remain the leading ones in the world. “At these stages, I deliberately gave everyone on the team the opportunity to perform evenly. With such a strategy, our positions in the individual World Cup are not very high, but everyone has gained experience, and there is good competition when selecting for the relay four,” said Valery Polkhovsky in an interview with a Vremya Novostey correspondent. At the same time, he did not hide the fact that everyone in the team, including the staff, is excited about the upcoming elections.
“The results are good, but objectively the team is going through hard times,” Polkhovsky said. - There was a time when we did not think about extraneous things, knowing that we had a strong and reliable partner behind us - the Mechel company. During this period of cooperation, the psychology of the biathletes themselves changed for the better. Now the situation is somewhat different. In particular, we had some problems when leaving for the first stage. We are told that there seems to be a contract between the SBR and a German company, but the union itself has not concluded any agreements with the athletes. Therefore, the team decided to perform without the logo of this company. It is only on the rifle and on the numbered beeps as a partner of the International Biathlon Union, but this is regulated by the rules of the IBU.”
At present, it is obvious that clarity in the chain of relationships “general sponsor - RBU - athletes” can only appear after the reporting and re-election conference. Six people nominated their candidacies for the post of RBU President. These are its current head, four-time Olympic champion Alexander Tikhonov, president of the Moscow Biathlon Federation Vladimir Malin, head coach of the Armed Forces in skiing Alexey Shadrin, two-time Olympic champion Dmitry Vasiliev, president of the Moscow Region Biathlon Federation Gennady Ramensky and first vice-president of the RBU Dmitry Aleksashin.
The experience of previous elections in our other sports federations shows that even with such an abundance of candidates, there really are only one or two, maximum three forces. Many of those who applied immediately before the election procedure withdraw their candidacies in favor of one or another competitor. According to our data, the main struggle should unfold between Tikhonov and Malin. For example, the personal position of Polkhovsky and a number of his colleagues is also known - based on program theses and personal communications, they will welcome the election of Malin. However, only representatives of regional biathlon federations will have the right to choose.
Malin’s program theses seem very clear, interesting, innovative, and there is a complete feeling that when they are implemented, our biathlon will reach a fundamentally new level of development. For example, the candidate proposes to create an experimental team of high-class skiers with the goal of bringing them to a high level in biathlon within two to three years. The last time such a team operated in our country was in 1996. Malin considers it necessary, through regional federations, to provide assistance to coaches working with young athletes, to annually purchase high-quality equipment for regional federations and sports schools, to finance them, to assist in providing regional bases with everything necessary for conducting high-quality training camps.
It is also proposed to build a modern biathlon center capable of hosting World and European Cup stages in the Central region of Russia and to modernize existing biathlete training centers (Novosibirsk, Izhevsk, Krasnoyarsk, etc.), creating in them everything necessary for training national teams. Particular emphasis is placed on the issue of ski preparation, which has always been a sore point for us. According to Malin, it is necessary to legitimize the position of a technician and serviceman in the national team through Rossport, specially train ski preparation specialists, closely exchange experience with foreign colleagues, participate in conferences held by the world's leading manufacturers of ski waxes, and send specialists for their personal participation in testing new ski models of all major brands.
Judging by the results of our shooting skiers in Turin and at the starts of the World Cup this season, one gets the feeling that everything is fine in the sport. But this impression is deceptive. Competition is intensifying rapidly. The Swedes have created a strong relay team, China, which has been in the middle for a long time, is already in third place in the Women's Nations Cup standings, and other countries are not standing still. Therefore, if fundamental changes are not made in the development strategy of Russian biathlon now, then by Vancouver 2010 we may lose our leading position.