Smolsky returned to action in the Champions League. Are Russian teams in the “Best League in the World”?
Tatyana Postnikova September 7, 2024, 14:00 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.
In two races, the representative of the national team only won one medal.
Belarusian biathlete Anton Smolsky surprises everyone at the start of the season. The Belarusian scored a “golden” double at the first stage of the Alfa-Bank Commonwealth Cup in Krasnoyarsk. First, Anton won the sprint by half a minute, and now he won the pursuit by almost a minute, triumphantly finishing with the flag.
The Belarusian’s dominance is astonishing. In football terms, he plays in the Champions League. Only one question remains: do Russian teams play in the “best league in the world”?
“We need to create a reservation immediately”
Smolsky dominates the Commonwealth Cup in Krasnoyarsk. In the pursuit, Anton initially had a great lead of 23 seconds, but with each minute the Belarusian increased the pace and pulled away from his opponents. To understand: with one mistake after the first milestone, Smolsky was 19.9 seconds ahead of Pyotr Paschenko.
How was the men’s sprint at the Commonwealth Cup?
Smolsky destroyed everyone at the start of the season. What about the Russians?
The only moment when Anton’s position could have changed was on the second run. The Belarusian made another mistake, but his opponents got it right. Smolsky’s lead was then only 4.5 seconds. But on the first run, Anton recovered and worked to zero while his opponents entered the penalty circles. As a result: the Belarusian’s lead during the night increased to 55.4 seconds.
Well, after that, nobody could stop Smolsky. Anton walked at his own pace and did a great job in the final stage. The Belarusian finished triumphant: in splendid isolation and with the flag of his country in his hands.
“We need to immediately create a reserve, because in winter there is not always enough [сил] for the whole season. We need to take advantage of the fact that Latypov is still accelerating. I was pushed to the last position, the race was interesting,” Smolsky explained to Match TV.
“A kind of fantasy”
What was happening to the Russians at that moment? They were desperately fighting each other. In the first half of the race, Karim Khalili, Anton Babikov, Evgeniy Emerkhonov and Pyotr Pashchenko tried to keep up with Smolsky. In the second part of the chase, Babikov and Pashchenko dropped out of the fight, but Alexander Kornev, Dmitry Ivanov and Kirill Bazhin fought for the top three. All three had systematically moved up from the bottom throughout the distance.
Five athletes approached the final milestone almost simultaneously. As a result, Emerkhonov and Kornev received two penalties, Khalili – one. Only the team consisting of Bazhin and Ivanov, representing Ugra, scored zero.
Anastasia Shevchenko won the women’s pursuit in a tough fight:
“I had a different goal.” Shevchenko heroically defended gold in fight against Khalili
Kirill finished second, 42 seconds behind Smolsky. During the race, the athlete managed to regain three positions. Ivanov closed the top three (+53.4), moving up 10 places!
“It’s great to have come third. I wouldn’t say I felt good during the race. I came in on the third lap. I think everything was decided today by the shootout,” Ivanov admitted.
Bazhin’s medal is the first for representatives of the Russian men’s team this season. Previously, only Russian athletes who trained in the regions were able to climb the podium. This is not a very pleasant statistic for the management of the national team.
What to do about it is a big question for coaches. For now, it is only clear that Smolsky is an athlete at the level of the Champions League, and the Russians, at best, only reach the level of the “Best League in the World” club. Or the lower division of the Conference League. And ours clearly needs to catch up.
