Family in a row: Anastasia and Karim Khalili's victories and Serokhvostov's embarrassment

The sixth and last stage of the Commonwealth Biathlon Cup has ended in Murmansk. On the last starting day, men and women overcame the mass starts. Their winners were Russian Victoria Slivko and Belarusian Anton Smolsky. No more races are planned this season. For more information, see the Izvestia article.

Lateness and a new type of race

The stage started with sprints: before the races, the women's standings were more complicated — Victoria Slivko was the leader of the overall Commonwealth Cup standings, but Natalia Shevchenko and Dinara Smolskaya were less than 40 points behind. For men, the situation was clearer — Belarusian Anton Smolsky had a lead of 200+ points. By taking seventh place in the race, he became the best ahead of schedule. At the same time, there was still an intrigue in the SBR rating — Daniil Serokhvostov and Eduard Latypov were in the lead there.

If the women's sprint went without incident — Dinara Smolskaya provided a comfortable advantage over Anastasia Khalili and Anna Sola, who completed three penalty laps, with one miss — then the men's started with embarrassment. Serokhvostov was late for the material check before the start and practically deprived himself of any chance of winning the SBR ranking, where one million rubles are awarded for the first place. Latypov also dropped out of the fight — he was absent for medical reasons.

"I'm coming to matcontrol. I see that no one is there anymore. I'm asking: "Where can I go?" I was told: "You know the rules. You can't." I say that the athletes at the National Cup and the Commonwealth Cup had exceptions. "You know the rules." And everything. You have to take it 10 minutes before the start, and I arrived nine minutes before the start. My joint. This is the first time. It's kind of ugly that some are allowed in, and some are not," Daniel explained on the air of Match.

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The main intrigue of the sixth stage was being prepared on the second day: on Saturday, the organizers tried out a new type of race, the team sprint. The discipline resembles a mixed relay race, but instead of a man–woman pair, athletes of the same sex run. Someone liked this kind of show format, someone wants to see a pursuit race in its place, which is familiar after sprints. Victoria Slivko and Tamara Derbusheva won for women, Anton Babikov and Alexander Loginov won for men.

"The format of the team sprint is very interesting, and I liked it. It is the most optimal and reminds us of the repeated training sessions that we do during the preparatory period. One athlete shoots and passes to the other. It turns out a good speed time and a short rest break. The team sprint turned out to be spectacular, relevant, emotional and unpredictable. The leaders can change after each firing line," RB Sport quotes Andrei Padin, coach of the Russian women's national team.

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The last day is the triumph of the Khalili family

Before the last day, there was still an intrigue in the women's overall standings — Victoria Slivko could lose her leadership in case of an unsuccessful performance. The competitors Smolskaya, Derbusheva and Shevchenko were dangerously close. However, Victoria was ahead of her rivals, finishing fourth with two misses, just 3.8 seconds behind Irina Kazakevich, who came in third.

The last day of the Commonwealth Cup was a real triumph for the Khalili family — Anastasia and Karim. Both won their races confidently. Anastasia finished first with a margin of 23.1 seconds from Victoria Meteli.

"Of course, I am very happy and happy that I won the final race of the season today and did a good job both on the course and at the turn. They showed me the first shooting, and I missed the target. I don't know, it's probably nervous. I am very happy that I won. This is my eighth victory this year. The second line was not shown lying down. They said, "Work standing up as best you can." And it turns out that I can work two zeros standing up. I did a lot of things yesterday, and I've improved today. It is very pleasant to end on such a note and I would like to start summer preparations for the new season faster. To correct the mistakes that I made this year," Anastasia said on the air of the Match.

Karim Khalili said that his wife's result inspired him to win. He performed perfectly on the firing lines and was 10.4 seconds ahead of Anton Babikov. Evgeny Sidorov became the third — this is his first personal podium at the Commonwealth Cup.

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Khalili remained second in the overall standings of the Commonwealth Cup, but he snatched victory in the SBR ranking — the fate of the first place was decided in the last race of the season. Serokhvostov arrived only 22nd, and in order to maintain his leadership, he had to finish in the top three. Karim became the winner of the prize million.

Commonwealth Cup

Overall standings

Women

1. Victoria Slivko (Russia) — 1804

2. Dinara Smolskaya (Belarus) — 1765

3. Tamara Derbusheva (Russia) — 1749

Men

1. Anton Smolsky (Belarus) — 1919

2. Karim Khalili (Russia) — 1726

3. Anton Babikov (Russia) — 1573