Translated material
Racing for the elite
Poiret does not agree that Bjoerndalen is the greatest
The World Championships in Anterselva (Italy) are marked by the rivalry between two great biathletes of our time. Before the start of the current tournament, Norwegian Ole Einar Bjoerndalen and Frenchman Raphael Poiret each had in their collection seven top awards won at world championships. Following the results of the victorious sprint and pursuit race, the Scandinavian increased his number of gold medals to nine; yesterday Poiret rushed in pursuit of him - a triumph in the 20 km individual race and his eighth championship title. Ricco Gross also has nine victories in competitions of this rank, but the German is unlikely to be able to increase their number - it is not at all a fact that the 36-year-old veteran will be given a place in the relay quartet. At the current World Championships, Gross is ending his career, Poiret and Bjoerndalen are not going anywhere yet, and they will probably still have big victories.The individual race is the most problematic discipline for Bjoerndalen. Yes, in this type of program he finished with the best time at the Olympics in Salt Lake City and four years later became a silver medalist at the Winter Games in Turin, but at the World Championships in ten individual races, the maximum that the Norwegian could achieve was - - “bronze” in 2004. Yesterday, Ole Einar went to the race later than all the other favorites, number 89, and already at the exit from the first shooting range he lost all chances to fight not only for getting into the medals, but even for a place in the top 10. In the prone position, the Norwegian made three misses, and in this race, every inaccurate shot is punishable by a penalty minute. In total, the Scandinavian had to add six minutes to the net time for completing the route.
For several athletes who were in the lead at the intermediate marks, the fourth shooting line became fatal. Having shot three times without misses, Swede Bjorn Ferry, Frenchman Simon Fourcade, and Austrian Christoph Sumann could not cope with their nerves at the last stand. But the rifle did not let Poiret down, who, with perfect firing, also showed excellent speed over the distance. For Nikolai Kruglov, shooting training still dominates ski training. Without misses, he lost to both Ferry and the Czech Michal Schlesinger, who earned a two-minute penalty. Gross has similar problems - the veteran has a keen eye, but it is already difficult for him to compete with younger biathletes on the track. Ricco took ninth place without a single miss.
The prestige of German men's biathlon was supported by the silver medalist of the individual race, Mikael Greis. In the two previous disciplines, shooting skiers from Germany performed worse than ever, leaving their fans horrified. The second award won at this tournament by the Czech Michal Schlesinger, who previously received silver in the sprint, is probably the biggest surprise of the championship so far. However, the Czechs have already managed to accustom everyone to their unexpected ups and downs at the most important competitions. Usually, at the World Cup stages, the biathletes of the Czech national team - both representatives of the stronger sex and girls - do not grab stars from the sky, but they approach the World Championships at the peak of their form, and a little luck accompanies them. Suffice it to recall the “gold” and “bronze” of Katerina Kholubtsova in Khanty-Mansiysk 2003, the third place of Zdenek Vitek at the same tournament and the victory of Roman Dostal in the individual race at the previous championship in 2005 in Hochfilzen.
The fifth and sixth positions of Nikolai Kruglov and Ivan Tcherezov, respectively, are quite a worthy result, considering that the Russians have not achieved gold in this type of program since 1996, when Sergei Tarasov celebrated success. Moreover, since then none of our athletes have been among the winners. Sergei Rozhkov and Philip Shulman, who were thrown into battle for the first time at this championship, did not demonstrate anything outstanding. Rozhkov is 15th (two misses), Shulman can only be consoled by the fact that in the final protocol he is located right behind Bjoerndalen - 33rd line (four misfires).
Results. World Championship. Anterselva (Italy). 1. Poiret (France) -- 56.14.6 (0+0+0+0). 2. Greis (Germany) - backlog 26.8 (0+1+0+1). 3. Schlesinger (Czech Republic) - 37.4 (0+2+0+0)... 5. Kruglov - 51.1 (0+0+0+0).