BiathlonRussia and Belarus
Excluded, due to the conflict in Ukraine, from the competitions under the aegis of the International Federation, the Russian Biathlon was organized in the summer to allow its athletes a calendar of high-level competitions throughout the winter.
Tuesday 13 December 2022 10 minutes reading time
There are three circuits that have gained importance compared to the past, guaranteeing 13 stages for biathletes without any coincidence of dates with a more attractive prize pool.
The first circuit is the Cup of Russia with six stages scheduled between November and February; it began, in conjunction with the opening of the World Cup in Kontiolahti, in Khany-Mansiysk and continued in the following weeks in Uvat and Tyumen. For the pre-Christmas weekend we move to Ufa and then resume with a stop in January in Rybinsk and close in mid-February with the Tchaikovsky finals.
Belarusian athletes, themselves banned from the World Cup, can participate in the Cup, but without accessing the prize pool and without "participating" in the Cup ranking.
On the other hand, the Commonwealth Cup is completely accessible to Russian and Belarusian biathletes, the first competition in history that brings together roller ski competitions in the summer season and winter competitions. After being in Sochi and Raubichi in the summer, four winter stops are planned. At the end of December we start in Ryazan where a show competition was also scheduled, now cancelled, in the Almaz stadium. A double stage in Raubichi is scheduled for the first two weeks of January to close the calendar in March in Tyumen.
The Russian National Championships remain which, as usual, are spread over three dates. At the end of February in Izhevsk the titles of the Individual, Supersprint and Mass Start will be awarded to 60 starters. Appointment at the end of March in Khanty-Mansiysk for Sprint, Pursuit and Mass Start in addition to the relays and grand closing on April 5 and 6 in Uvat with the 40 km marathon for men and 30 for women and 8 polygons.
As often happens within the Russian movement, during the summer the crisis within the Russian national teams exploded with the refusal of many athletes to continue working with last season's coaches, Yuri Kaminsky in the men's field and Mikhail Shashilov in the field female. Among the elite athletes only Eduard Latypov decided to stay with Kaminsky while the diaspora of the other senators disgruntled with the shooting manager of the Maksimov team. Almost all of them went to work with Sergey Bashkirov's youth group while only Said Karimulla Khalili moved to the team of twenty-seven-year-old coach Artem Istomin, until then composed only of biathletes.
Then came, in the women's field, the maternity leave of Uliana Nigmatullina and Kristina Reztsova without forgetting that Svetlana Mironova was hit in late spring in just one month first by COVID and then by chickenpox and is still struggling to regain her condition: three quarters of the silver relay at the Beijing Olympics is in the pits. "Senator" Alexander Loginov is also struggling with a difficult recovery of his condition, who is only participating in a few races.
In light of this, the first three stages of the Cup of Russia play strength propose an image of generational change or of ranks whose depth will be understood only in the future.
In the women's field, in the five races held out of seven scheduled as the calendar was decimated by cancellations due to too cold temperatures as well as by a race in Uvat held at -25° with dozens of renouncements and withdrawals, the most regular appeared Victoria Slivko who, despite never obtaining the victory, never dropped below the fifth place of the Tyumen Sprint getting on the podium three times: second in the Uvat Sprint and third in Khanty Mansiysk and in the Tyumen Mass Start.
There are many expectations for the Belarusian Dzinara Alimbekava, seventh in the World Cup standings in 2021 and second at the time of the announcement in the last station. The twenty-six year old, who married her teammate Antono Smolski on October 1st, took part in only three races, finishing sixth in the Sprint of Khanty Mansiysk, second in the Sprint of Tyumen and winner of the following Pursuit (besides the Single Mixed with husband) shooting on season with 87.5% in line with last season's World Cup performance.
The only biathlete to climb the top step of the podium twice was the twenty-six-year-old Anastasiia Goreeva who prevailed in the Sprint of the first stage and in the Mass Start of Tyumen while Irina Kazevich, the only able and enlisted participant in the Beijing relay won the Sprint of Uvat and Elizaveta Kaplina, no presence in the World Cup at 26, won the Sprint of Tyumen.
In the men's field. after some summer difficulties for having decided to work on speed on skis and limit slowdowns before the shooting range, the star of the twenty-four year old with Afghan ancestry shines, Said Karimulla Khalili who last year climbed on the third step of the podium of the 20 km of Anterselva. Khalili prevailed in the opening Sprint of Khanty Mansiysk and in the Pursuit of Tyumen, two victories to which are added three fourths and a sixth place, shooting in the season with 93%, which allow him to lead the general classification .
Behind him, a handful of points, his training partner Daniil Serokhvostov who imposed himself in the Sprint of Ugat and in the Mass Start of Tyumen while Eduard Latypov also conquered a victory in the Sprint of Tyumen and Vasily Tomshin in the Individual of Ugat. Alexander Loginov, still in the recovery phase, only took second place in the first Sprint of the season.
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