Translated material
There's still gunpowder
Our team started the season with two World Cup awards
A new biathlon season has started in Finnish Kontiolahti. Yesterday, as part of the first stage of the World Cup, two individual races were held for women at 15 km and for men at 20 km, as a result of which the Russian team found medals in their luggage - “silver” by Tatyana Moiseeva and “bronze” by Maxim Chudov.The men's race took place shortly after the women's, when dusk had already fallen over Kontiolahti. Floodlights installed along the entire route allowed the biathletes to clearly see the ski track and firing lines. However, such an environment is already familiar to biathletes. This circumstance in no way prevented Vincent Defrasne from winning the first gold medal of the season. The Frenchman shot without misses, and his skis rolled faster than the others. Norwegian Halvard Hanevold crossed the finish line second, and Maxim Chudov completed the top three. In addition to Chudov, there are four more Russians in the top ten - Sergey Rozhkov - 4th, Alexey Churin - 6th, Nikolay Kruglov - 8th. Ivan Tcherezov showed 14th result, Mikhail Kochkin - 27th, and Dmitry Yaroshenko was in the ninth ten. According to Maxim Chudov, the current race clearly demonstrated: our men's team has potential, since it was the first of the season; many biathletes have not yet reached optimal condition.
Our girls could address the same words to themselves. In the absence of experienced Russian athletes Albina Akhatova and Olga Zaitseva on the track, who, having become mothers, decided to continue their sports careers, the place of the leader of the women's team in yesterday's race was taken by an athlete from Cheboksary Tatyana Moiseeva. Having performed flawlessly on all four shooting ranges (the Russian woman did not make a single mistake), Moiseeva, one and a half kilometers before the finish, was almost 11 seconds ahead of 32-year-old German Martina Glagov, who was also impeccable in shooting. Vice-champion of the Olympic Games in Turin 2006, multiple world champion at the end of the race not only reduced the gap, but was also ahead of Moiseeva by 6.7 seconds. The bronze medal went to another athlete from Germany, Simone Denkinger, who, with two penalties, was 1:02.7 behind her compatriot.
According to the coach of the Russian women's team, Valery Polkhovsky, the race turned out to be very interesting, and the intrigue remained until the very end. Tatyana Moiseeva has never competed with a score of four nil. As for the rest of the athletes, the best, not counting Moiseeva, was two-time world champion 2007 among juniors Svetlana Sleptsova, who finished 9th, Ekaterina Yuryeva - 24th, Oksana Neupokoeva - 32nd, Natalya Guseva - 35th -I, Lyubov Petrova - 46th, Olga Anisimova - 61st.
By the way, the decision to admit four athletes from this five - Yuryeva, Guseva, Sleptsova and Petrova - to the competition was made less than an hour before the start of the women's individual event. On the eve of the start, the participation of the quartet was in question due to the fact that the logos on the athletes’ uniforms were placed incorrectly. However, after repeated “material control”, our girls still went to the start.
The coach of the women's team, Valery Polkhovsky, controlled the race directly on the track. Although the leadership of the Russian Biathlon Union (SBR) deprived him of the opportunity to obtain accreditation for these competitions. Theoretically, this meant that Polkhovsky could not take a “combat position” and could watch the ups and downs of the race on TV. The formal reason for Polkhovsky’s “removal” was that the coach had not yet signed an agreement with the SBR. Although in fact the roots of this conflict are much deeper. Among the “refuseniks” was the captain of the national team, Sergei Rozhkov.
In short, the scandalous biathlon series, apparently, will continue this season, although the athletes formally complied with the requirements of the SBR, did not cover up sponsor logos and signed agreements. Otherwise, the International Union would not have allowed the “strikers” to start, remembering last year. Thank God that so far all these worries have not affected the results of the Russians.
On Friday and Sunday several more races will be held in Kontiolahti - sprint and pursuit races. And the next stage will take place in the Austrian Hochfilzen on December 6-9. Titled Russian Albina Akhatova, who has been training as part of our team since the summer, will take part in it. Olga Zaitseva will join the national team in January. Her namesake Pyleva, whose period of disqualification expires in February, will appear before the public in the last races of this season. Anna Bogaliy and Svetlana Ishmuratova will definitely miss the current competitive year.