On mass start: Biathlon CR stage ended with Povarnitsyn's success

On December 8, the second stage of the Russian Biathlon Cup ended with six races in Khanty-Mansiysk. Last week athletes competed in sprints and various variations of mixed relays, this weekend the program of competitions was much more familiar to the spectators with experience - two personal contact races at once: pasut and mass start. And the stage started with a sprint. Anastasia Zyryanova unexpectedly won the women's race with two firing lines, while the best result for men was shown by Anton Smolsky. His time was only three tenths better than Eduard Latypov's.

Debut victory

In the women's sprint the entire podium was occupied by young athletes. 23-year-old Anastasia Zyryanova won the race. She did not make a single miss at the firing line, and the distance was covered in 21 minutes 50.7 seconds. This is certainly a success for the biathlete representing the Moscow Region. The girl has been competing at the adult level for the third season already, but before that she was on the podium only in team events - she has two silvers in the single mixed and a gold in the women's relay.

The second result was shown by 25-year-old Polina Plusnina, who was also accurate on the shooting range, but she lost to the winner by 20.3 seconds. However, the silver medal is a great result for the biathlete. She has never managed to get on the podium before.

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The bronze medal was won by 22-year-old Anastasia Grishina. Unlike her rivals, this season she already had silver in the paciut at the Commonwealth Cup stage. Then she lost only to the titled Dinara Smolskaya, but this time she managed to take revenge on her rival. The Belarusian, just like the Russian, failed with one shot, but lost 6.4 seconds and remained only sixth.

For many star biathletes the race did not turn out in the best way. Kristina Rezzova, Irina Kazakevich and Anastasia Halili made three misses each, while Anna Sola missed four times and finished in the top 15. Natalia Shevchenko and Viktoria Slivko, the leader of the Russian Cup overall standings, missed two targets each and finished 7th and 10th respectively.

In the men's event, Eduard Latypov, Daniil Serokhvostov and Anton Smolskiy are fighting for gold in the new season. That's why all the attention of the fans was focused on this trio.

This time Latypov worked well at the firing ranges. He covered all ten targets, although he made his fans nervous again by making a huge pause before the last shot on the rack. He went into the finishing lap with a 4.4-second lead over Smolski, who was also accurate on Friday. But he could not win the race: the time of the Belarusian was better by only 0.3 seconds.

However, both biathletes were lucky that Serokhvostov made two misses on the rack. In fact, even with such a decent penalty for sprint, Daniil finished third with only 1.7 seconds behind.

Khalili and Povarnitsyn's successes

Serokhvostov managed to take revenge in the pursuit race. The Barnaul native started to build up his lead after the first shoot and then only increased it. Having missed only one shot at four firing lines, Daniil finished with the gold medal without any problems, although he lost a dozen seconds of advantage closer to the finish. Nikita Porshnev and Anton Smolsky of Belarus fought fiercely for silver. As a result, the Russian did not give the second place to the vice-champion of Beijing-2022, having shown excellent speed on the final lap.

In the girls' paciut, the victory went to Natalia Shevchenko, who covered the course in 29 minutes and 18.7 seconds, having made one miss at four firing points. Everything was decided in the very end. Anastasia Zyryanova was in the lead after the fourth shooting, but with each section she was losing her advantage. At 8.6 kilometers Shevchenko reduced the gap to 0.6 seconds and soon took the first place. And then she did not let go of the victory at the finish line. In addition to Zyryanova, Tamara Derbusheva, who was also in the group of leaders for most of the race, got into the top-3.

The stage ended with the mass start. Women started the competition day. 33 athletes came to the start. And up to the first ladder the main medal contenders were in the shadow. The leader was Polina Shevnina, Kristina Pavlushina was 6.8 seconds behind her, and Polina Plusnina was 8.7 seconds behind her. Until the second firing line Shevnina was going confidently until she missed. Khalili immediately took over the palm. Anastasia's speed at the start of the season is in good order, so by the rack she had already broken away from her rivals. But Halili's shooting is not impressive at all. This is her main problem.

On the third boundary Nastia started to have difficulties, which resulted in two penalty laps. This allowed Shevnina to regain the lead. Victoria Slivko was closely behind her. At the last rack everyone made mistakes, but Halili missed only once. And she ran to the finish line with a big advantage. She was unstoppable. The first victory of the season!

And the fight for silver and bronze was fierce. At the 10.6 km cut-off Svetlana Mironova broke away from her opponents and took the second place. Shevnina closed the top-3.

In the men's race, in the absence of some stars (Serokhvostov, Smolsky and Latypov missed the race), others soloed. Alexander Kornev, Alexander Bektuganov, Ivan Kolotov - the leaders changed after each firing line. Everything was decided after the last shooting. Kolotov was in a hurry and went to one penalty lap, while Alexander Povarnitsyn made no mistakes. Ivan still ran away first with a small lead, and then Povarnitsyn caught up with him. Alexander showed a brilliant move and finished first. Kolotov was 6.6 seconds behind him, and the third place went to Viktor Plitsev.

The next stage of the Cup of Russia will be held from December 12 to 15 in Izhevsk.