Now the Russian women’s team has completely lost. Can’t you beat such a Smolskaya?
Batraz Tomaev September 8, 2024, 10:45 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.
Dinara, even with three failures, defeated her rivals, who failed only once.
On September 8, the first stage of the Alfa-Bank Commonwealth Biathlon Cup took place in Krasnoyarsk. The Sunday program opened with the start of the women’s race. The cloudy weather created an atmosphere, because the asphalt surface of the road was wet. This entailed additional risks for the athletes. But the organizers decided to remove the dangerous curve to avoid injuries.
Two Anastasias, Khalili and Shevchenko, went into the race wearing the leader’s yellow jersey, but were unable to lead the peloton after the first milestone.
Anastasia Khalili
Photo by: SBR
There, Anastasia Grishina captured the championship, followed by Anna Grigorieva and Anastasia Khalili. Shevchenko started 39.2 seconds behind.
The second line of fire was already shaping up as a mass start, forming a quartet of leaders. Slivko, Grigorieva, Gavrilova and Sheller happily joined in.
But there was also a small sensation here. Vladislava Gavrilova was the best shooter. The athlete from Ugra did not make any mistakes and entered the race with a lead of 17.2 seconds. Belarusian Dinara Smolskaya followed her, having missed two shots at that time.
The biathlon season started with the victory of Anastasia Khalili:
Now Khalili wins the women’s race too! The biathlon season has started in Krasnoyarsk
But in the final position, there was no trace of Gavrilova’s advantage left.
On the fourth throw, both athletes made a mistake. And then shooter Victoria Slivko intervened in the fight for gold. She went into the final lap as the leader of the race. And Dinara Smolskaya was breathing down her neck.
It later became clear how difficult the final lap was for Victoria Slivko. Her opponent did not flinch. In the battle between Smolskaya and Slivko, Dinara turned out to be stronger. The Olympic champion won a more than convincing victory over the entire Russian team, while taking an additional penalty of 450 meters.
Dinara Smolskaya
Photo by: RIA Novosti
The fate of the bronze medal was also unclear until the very end of the race. But in the end Vladislava Gavrilova was defeated by local athlete Anna Grigorieva.
So far, team leader Natalia Shevchenko is unable to cope with shooting. Mikhail Shashilov’s team failed seven times at the shooting range and took an unfortunate 20th place in the mass start. Apparently, the adaptation after vision correction is not over yet.
What about the leaders of the first races? Smolskaya beat Anastasia Khalili by 46.1 seconds. She finished eighth. Anastasia Shevchenko was much lower: in 16th place and lost almost two minutes.
The results of the women’s part of the first stage of the Commonwealth Cup are very controversial. On the one hand, inline skating is a completely different story and it is impossible to assess the athletes’ readiness for winter from it. On the other hand, we saw Dinara Smolskaya return to her previous position.
The Smolsky couple is shaking Krasnoyarsk!
Smolsky returned to action in the Champions League. Are Russian teams in the “Best League in the World”?
