Start puncture: why Bolshunov had a bad start to the season

On Sunday, December 1, the second stage of the Russian Cup opened in Vershina Teya. It was planned to hold it in Tyumen, but due to the lack of snow in the region, the skiers had to stay in Khakassia. As it turned out, Alexander Bolshunov's problems haven't gone away. The three-time Olympic champion failed to get into the top-3 in the 10km classic, and on Monday, December 2, he stopped at the quarterfinal stage in the sprint race.

Collision with a copter

The end of the first stage seemed to give hope that Bolshunov was beginning to find his power. At the start of the season Alexander could not compete with the leaders. First, he was unconvincing at the Khakassia Cup, where he came fifth in the 10-kilometer classic section and lost 35 seconds to the winner Ilya Semikov. Further - worse. In the first race of the Russian Cup (also in the classic sectional, but at 15 kilometers) he was only seventh, and in the skating sprint Bolshunov was eliminated in the quarterfinals.

The starting stage was closed by the 15km speed skating section, where the fans finally saw San Sanych on the podium. On Yuri Borodavko's birthday, his charges took the entire podium, and Bolshunov was second, losing only to Denis Spitsov.

"Only slowly we are starting to revive after all the incomprehensible situations we had at the beginning of the season," Bolshunov said on the broadcast of the Russian Cross-Country Skiing Federation. - I'm glad that on Yuri Viktorovich's birthday the three of us showed a good result. We fought together during the whole distance. Although two days ago Artem (Maltsev. - Ed.) came up and said: "Sanya, let's go home and do other things. What's the point of running like this?" I completely agree with him, because you either fight for the top three and win, or you don't run at all. But the preparation was crumpled, and today is the first normal result."

Four days passed between the first and second stages in Vershinaya Teya, but, as you can see, that's not a long time to come to life, especially in the classics. Bolshunov started in the sectional later than all his main competitors - number 60. Thus, he had a good idea of who and how he was going through the sections. But already at the acceleration it became clear that it would be difficult for him to fight for medals. At 1.2 km he was 12 seconds behind the leader.

And after the 6.6 km cutoff, he had an altercation with equipment flying over the track. The quadrocopter got too close to San Sanych and hit him somewhere in the thigh area. The skier staggered a little, but kept his balance. The copter was light and even unnoticeable in the broadcast. The race commentators didn't see it either: "Oh-oh-oh! Did he stumble? Or is there something wrong with the sticks?" It obviously didn't do much damage to Bolshunov, but it must have spoiled his mood.

By that moment Alexander was running with the 10th time, losing 33 seconds. At the 8km mark, he dropped down a line, but at the final two-kilometer stretch he still managed to hang on to the top-10 and became ninth with a loss of 48 seconds.

Terentyev's mishap

Alexander himself explained his failures by the fact that before the season he fell ill and could not get rid of cold symptoms for a long time. Although earlier illnesses did not really prevent San Sanych from winning prizes and victories. Therefore, one of the versions of Bolshunov's recent failures began to be called loss of motivation in the absence of international starts. Petter Northug was one of the first to talk about it. The legendary Norwegian said that the Russian himself shared these thoughts with him in correspondence. The skier's coach Yuri Borodavko also thought about a similar reason.

"Although we think that the suspension from international competitions does not affect, but it still psychologically affects Bolshunov's motivation," Metaratings quotes Borodavko as saying. - You can see it in the training process. Whether we want it or not, but the bar is slowly falling without international starts. It is very difficult to change human psychology.

It was hardly to be expected that all of Bolshunov's problems would disappear in the second sprint of the season. In the skating sprint a week ago, Bolshunov took 19th place in the prologue and third in the quarterfinal race, now in the classics the result was slightly worse - 21st position in qualifying and fourth in the quarterfinals.

"Talked to him yesterday after the race. He has some problems. Now we need to understand what those problems are. I'm sure that in the near future it will be found out what's really wrong with Sasha in order to adjust the preparation and bring him up to the next races," FLGR head Elena Vyalbe explained to Match after the race. - He lost weight very quickly - in a few days by 4 kg. This could also be the reason. We just need to understand that in the future he will be able to be the Bolshunov we know.

Perhaps the main loser of the classic sprint is not Bolshunov, but Alexander Terentyev. The day before, he took 7th place in the sectional, which is considered a very good result for Terentyev in the distance race. It seemed that in the sprint, the two-time Olympic medalist should be on fire. In the prologue Alexander showed the second time, but in the quarterfinals his carelessness let him down. He was second in his race and seemed to be in control. Just before the finish Terentyev lowered his arms, but Artem Maltsev suddenly jumped out from behind. Alexander saw his opponent at the last moment and sharply threw his leg forward. However, Maltsev won the race in this avoidable difference. Since the race was slower than the previous ones, Terentyev did not qualify for the semifinals as a lackey-loser.

And the red jersey holder of the sprint leader Denis Filimonov, who was the last in his semifinal, was not in the final. But even without him there were enough representatives of the Tatarstan national team in the decisive race - five out of six participants. Sergey Ardashev took a confident victory, and the rest of the medals were won in a heated struggle at the finish. Saveliy Korostelev was the quickest, and the only representative of the Moscow team Konstantin Tiunov was only three hundredths of a second ahead of the overall leader Ivan Gorbunov.

In the women's race there were no surprises again. Anastasia Faleyeva, the owner of the red jersey, ran away from her rivals on the last climb and took her second sprint victory in a row. Silver went to Alena Baranova and bronze to Daria Nepryaeva. Lidia Gorbunova, like her husband Ivan, remained in fourth place.

The stage in Vershina Tei will be closed by 20 km mass start skating races. They will be held on Wednesday, December 4. Women will start at 6.00, men - 8.00 Moscow time.