Translated material
Maximum program
For the first time, 11 sets of medals will be awarded at the World Championships
Tomorrow in the Italian town of Anterselva (called Antolz in German), located in South Tyrol, the main competition of the current season for shooting skiers - the World Championship - starts. The tournament will open with men's and women's sprint races with two shooting ranges at distances of 10 and 7.5 km, respectively.Biathletes of the Russian national team went to Italy without a stop home, immediately after the end of the sixth stage of the World Cup in Pokljuika (Slovenia). Thus, our athletes had a full week and a half to study the already well-known route, get used to the local conditions, and shoot. The composition of the team to compete in the world championship races is as follows: Olga Anisimova, Irina Malgina (both Khanty-Mansiysk), Tatyana Moiseeva (Cheboksary), Anna Bogaliy-Titovets (Novosibirsk), Ekaterina Yuryeva (Perm region), Anna Bulygina ( Tyumen), Natalya Guseva (St. Petersburg); Nikolay Kruglov, Dmitry Yaroshenko (both Khanty-Mansiysk), Ivan Tcherezov (Izhevsk), Maxim Chudov, Philip Shulman (both Ufa) and Sergey Rozhkov (Moscow region). There are 13 participants from Russia in total - seven women (head coach - Valery Polkhovsky) and six representatives of the stronger sex (team mentor - Vladimir Alikin).
This season, Malgina (individual race), Kruglova (sprint, pursit) have won cup victories, and the men's and women's relay quartets have two victories each. The winners based on the results of personal competitions were Yaroshenko, Tcherezov, Chudov and Moiseeva. The most striking was the Russian triumph in early January at the fourth stage of the World Cup in Oberhof, when in the pursuit race Kruglov, Yaroshenko and Chudov took the entire podium. Naturally, at the World Championships we expect many medals of different denominations from our biathletes, especially since for the first time in history the tournament program includes 11 disciplines at once.
The expansion was due to the inclusion of the mixed relay, although the mixed doubles medals had already been competed for twice. But in 2005, such a race took place as part of the World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, and last season the world championship was not on the international calendar as such because of the Olympics, but the mixed relay in Slovenia received the status of the start of the World Championship. In general, the history of the tournament dates back to 1958; women played for medals for the first time in the 1983/84 season and until 1989 they competed separately from men, until joint championships began to be held.
For Russia, the most successful was the World Cup 11 years ago in Ruhpolding (Germany) - four gold medals. Our biathletes had one more victory at the World Championships in Slovenia, when Pavel Rostovtsev won the sprint and pursit, and another top award was won by the women's relay quartet. At the last World Championships two years ago in Hochfilzen (Austria), the Russians' medal haul was more modest, although quite worthy. Again, the girls were successful in the relay, Olga Zaitseva’s silver in the sprint, her bronze in the pursit and Olga Pyleva’s third prize in the mass start, the men had two second places - in the team race and Sergei Chepikov in the pursuit. The main hero of the championship was the Norwegian Ole Einar Bjoerndalen - four gold medals. He could not win only in the individual race.
Before the start of the season, Polkhovsky did not make medal plans for Anterselva. After all, for various reasons, such giants as Olympic champions Albina Akhatova, Olga Zaitseva, Olga Pyleva, Svetlana Ishmuratova are not performing now. Only Bogaliy and Guseva remained in the ranks. True, the athletes who previously competed in the second team of the national team performed well at the cup stages. Now, numerous biathlon fans in Russia simply will not understand if the women’s team remains without awards. Voicing his programmatic theses when taking over the post of coach of the men's team, Alikin proceeded from such a plan for the world championship - one gold, silver and bronze medal each.
According to the regulations, four people from countries included in the elite can compete in the individual race and sprint. The fifth is allowed only if one of his compatriots starts as the current world champion. The 60 fastest participants based on the results of the sprint are allowed to qualify for the pursit; a more complex principle of selection for the mass start, where only 30 racers compete for victory - according to the number of places at the shooting range. They will be occupied by the 15 best athletes according to the sum of points scored towards the World Cup points in previous races of this championship, including, without fail, all the winners. The remaining vacancies will be filled according to the position of the biathletes in the current general classification of the World Cup.
There will be no noticeably progressing Chinese in Anterselva this coming weekend. They are still busy at the sixth Asian Winter Games in their homeland and for this reason they will be late for the championship. It is worth noting that girls from the Middle Kingdom were often among the top ten finishers in the fastest races, and Kon Yingchao even won bronze in the sprint distance in Hochfilzen. So the absence of the Chinese on Saturday and Sunday will somewhat reduce the severity of the fight.
At this championship, the famous German Ricco Gross will say goodbye to big sport. He announced back in the fall that it was in Anterselva that he would end his glorious career. Four Olympic golds and nine victories at the world championships are the main achievements of the living legend of German biathlon, who has been competing at a serious level since 1990. Gross will turn 37 in August and has decided it's time for him to retire.
World Championship Schedule
February 3. 10 km sprint (men), 7.5 km sprint (women).
February 4. Pursuit race 12.5 km (men), pursuit race 10 km (women).
February 6. Individual race 20 km (men).
February 7. Individual race 15 km (women).
February 8. Mixed relay 4x6 km.
February 10. Relay 4x7.5 km (men), mass start 12.5 km (women).
February 11. 4x6 km relay (women), 15 km mass start (men).