The new biathlon season in Krasnoyarsk opened with the women’s sprint. New junior Anastasia Zyryanova came very close to a sensational victory. But no one could cope with Anastasia Khalili.
All the important things to know about the start of the season:
Biathlon is back. Top athletes from Russia and Belarus will open the season in Krasnoyarsk
What a shooting!
Irina Kazakevich looked like one of the main favourites at the start of the season. The reigning Commonwealth Cup winner opened the competition by raising the flag, then did zero on the lying section and led the race until the second milestone. But two mistakes in the standing position deprived the biathlete of the chance to win a medal.
Kazakevich’s unstable shooting is common, but in Krasnoyarsk almost all athletes experienced problems on the shooting range. Only 5 (!) out of 49 biathletes managed to score zero.
Among them was 23-year-old Anastasia Zyryanova, a recent junior and now a member of the Russian national team. Approaching the second line, she even got ahead of the speedy Kazakevich and, unlike her more experienced opponent, managed to stay in the stands.
Apparently, the athlete from Moscow region was not experienced enough in running the last stretch of the distance. After losing the lead on the second shot, Zyryanova began to give way with her legs and eventually lost to the winner by as much as 20 seconds.
The Russians left no chance for the Belarusians.
The first race of the season under a new name was won by Anastasia Khalili, who last season beat her rival Anastasia Goreeva. With a penalty, she was 15 seconds ahead of Anastasia Shevchenko, who set the same time as Tamara Derbusheva. Tamara, by the way, made a mistake by lying on her stomach, but she knocked Zyryanova out of the top three.
“I didn’t even know what to expect from myself, because, to be honest, we didn’t do any work at all: I didn’t do any tests, nothing. And I even started with a reserve of muscles to break down, because I didn’t know when I would run out. In the final lap everything went well, but she held on.
Today I was determined to practice purely on the shooting range, because I have a new rifle and I needed to shoot well today so as not to doubt my choice, so I decided to change the rifle in the last month of summer training. The last shot was already rushed, he probably thought “oh, zero!” But I am glad that being at zero is not bad,” Khalili noted in an interview with Match TV immediately after the race.
Now Khalili is in all the races:
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The only Belarusian who did not make any mistakes was Elena Kulak, who took 17th place. The closest to the podium was Ksenia Vorobey (Schneider), who played for the Tyumen team last season. In the off-season, the former Russian married Maxim Voroby and changed her sports citizenship.
But team leaders Dinara Smolskaya and Anna Sola failed in the race. Sola is in 24th place with four mistakes, while Smolskaya is in 42nd place with five.
The men’s sprint is still ahead, where the Belarusians also pose a real threat to the Russians. Will our team be able to resist Smolsky and company?
