For the first time in the championship there was a relatively calm race. Nobody caught up with anyone, didn’t prostrate themselves after the finish, didn’t throw ski poles into the snow with annoyance ... Her Highness Linda Grubben reigned on the track. Against her background, even such sizes as Frenchwoman Sandrine Bailly, Swedish Anna-Karin Olofsson, German Katie Wilhelm, looked amorphous.
The root cause of this straightforward hierarchy was heavy snowfall that hit Anterselva the night before the race. No matter how hard the servicemen tried, few managed to perfectly prepare the skis. Frankly, Bailly didn’t run, having made one mistake at the last frontier. She even managed to lose to Ekaterina Yurieva, who never shone with a move. Wilhelm didn’t run and shoot. Apparently, the lack of motivation forced the three-time Olympic champion to leave the track long before the finish. So far, for Katya, the world championships remain an insurmountable barrier. Since 2001, she can not win them.
The success of Linda Grubben is amazing. This season, she has never established herself as a fast racer. On the contrary. The Norwegian mined her prize places on her teeth, thanks to jewelry shooting. Who would have thought that Linda can run so fun and fast ?! For the first time, she demonstrated speed qualities already in Anterselva. In the pursuit race, she climbed from the prosaic 18th to second place, ahead of meteor Olofsson in the finish corridor! Since then, Grubben has been replaced. She runs faster than absolutely all the leaders.
The fight for silver and bronze did not work. Olympic champion Florence Bavarel-Robert went the distance before all the leaders, shot without a miss and calmly finished after Grubben. It is curious that the second starting number turned out to be prophetic for the Frenchwoman. German Martina Glagov got bronze, and she was by no means saddened. In the new year, Molly was more sick than practiced and performed.
Alas, the Russians did not please. Initially, the national team coaches trusted those who did not overdo it in previous races. An exception was made for the heroine of the stage in Pokljuk Tatyana Moiseeva, who, no matter how hard she tries, can not yet cope with the nerves at the firing lines. In the sprint, Tatyana missed four times, in the pursuit and individual race, she limited herself to three inaccurate shots. With such an aho shooting it is almost impossible to claim high places.
Olga Anisimova and Anna Bogaliy-Titovets in this race frankly scared. Before mixed and classic relay races, their physical form causes concern and bewilderment. Will you really have to rely on the young and not yet fired Ekaterina Yurieva ?! This is a dangerous move. In Oberhof, the national team coaches took a chance and entrusted the Perm biathlete a place in the quartet. What came of this is not worth reminding. Suffice it to say that Katya did not get into the finish corridor and roared for a long time in frustration.
What will be our composition in tomorrow's mixed relay? That is the main question. There are a trio of untouchables: Maxim Chudov, Dmitry Yaroshenko and Natalya Guseva. A vacant fourth place will be taken either by experienced Irina Malgina, who has problems with skiing, or Ekaterina Yuryeva.
While the coaches are solving the puzzle with the starting lineup, the Russian fans carefully estimate the chances, look with envy at the Norwegians, who have three gold coins in the piggy bank, and ... they still believe in success. For two years in a row, our biathletes became champions in this kind of biathlon program. As they say, God loves a trinity.