Biathlon: the Russian Babikov wins the Individual of Anterselva. Specialty cup at Tarjei Boe

The Anterselva stage starts with an Individual that sees two Russians, with Khalili third, on the podium after a long time. At the last shooting range Sturla Laegreid throws the specialty World Cup to the winds with his worst result, fifth place, in five races in the career format. Bad for the blues to shoot: Bormolini the only one to close in the 30.

Thursday 20 January 2022 4 minutes reading time

In a particularly selective race at the shooting range, Anton Babikov returns to the top step of the podium after more than five years - the victory in the Pursuit of Oestersund in 2016 - conquering the 20 km of Anterselva. The thirty-year-old Russian puts on the scoresheet the only 20/20 of the race and manages to defend himself on skis tightened by Tarjei Boe (0-0-0-2) keeping on the finish line 9.7 seconds of advantage of the 46.8 he could manage after the last polygon, in the comparison against one of the fastest of the day. The second place is worth to Tarjei Boe however the victory in the specialty World Cup, assigned on the basis of the misery of two seasonal races; in fact, the Norwegian precedes Sturla Holm Laegreid (0-1-0-2) in the race standings by three positions, fifth at 1.32.9. Between the two comes the first podium of 23-year-old Russian Said Karimulla Khalili (0-0-1-0), with the best placement of his career, surpassing, in the same format, the sixth place of the Pokljuka World Championships. Johannes Boe (0-2-1-0) finds the pace he had missed before his absence in Ruhpolding and with the fastest time of 15 seconds compared to his brother is fourth at 50.5 from Babikov. Sixth position for the first of the French, Simon Desthieux (1-1-1-0) at 2.08.2 ahead of last season's winner, Aleksandr Loginov (1-0-0-2), by 8 seconds and Fabien Claude ( 1-1-1-0) by 14. The American Paul Schommer (1-0-0-1) enters the top ten for the first time, ninth at 2.26.5, preceding a wasteful Emilien Jacquelin (0-0-0-2), tenth. For the blues, the day is not happy shooting. With three errors (0-1-1-1), Thomas Bormolini is in the top 30, the only Italian to succeed with a gap of 4.07.6; Lukas Hofer's errors are 6 (1-2-2-1), who closes at 5.50.1, as well as those of Tommaso Giacomel at 6.06.7. Three quarters of the match are excellent for Didier Bionaz (1-0-0-3) who enters the last polygon at the worst of times and thwarts a race in the top fifteen positions.

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