Irina Malgina, Natalya Guseva, Maxim Chudov and Dmitry Yaroshenko ... Ask any of them why this evening did not work. Nothing! Of course, there are always a couple of objective reasons: they didn’t guess with the ski ointment, the shooting was not asked, the functional state failed. But this, honestly, is the standard excuse for any failure. However, this race is not “any failure”. This is a failure.
In hot pursuit, I want to criticize the coaches. Like, they made a mistake with Malgin. Irina, by the way, frankly failed the first race. There were problems with skis that persistently did not "roll", but only scratched the snow. Perhaps it was worth taking a chance and putting young Ekaterina Yurieva as the “slaughterer”, who brilliantly shot the day before in the individual race. The rest of the girls painfully inexpressively ran a 15-kilometer race. Godlessly smeared, inferior rivals move. Probably, the national team mentors clearly understood that the choice was small. Therefore, they preferred fresh and rested Malgin and Gusev ...
The coaching of the stages seemed logical and robust. This season, Malgina performed in personal races with varying success, but in relay races she showed character and did not fail. The start of the race did not portend anything extraordinary for Irina. Before the first shooting, she walked next to the 20-year-old German Catherine Hitzer, who was dragging the peloton behind her. What happened next is a mystery. Irina used three additional cartridges on the “lying”, and two on the “stand”. The lag behind the leaders, which even ordinary Slovenes managed to visit, grew by leaps and bounds: + 1: 00.05, +1: 16.8, + 1: 45.7 ... Over two kilometers, the Russian woman managed to give her rivals almost a minute. It was a pity to look at the 33-year-old athlete. After the finish, she fell like a knockout, and for a long time she could not raise her eyes to the television cameras. It's a shame!
Further pursuit made little sense. Natalya Guseva proved this from the first meters: the backlog did not decrease, but rather increased. The owner of the bronze in the sprint shot the best in the team, using one additional cartridge. But her skis did not go completely. At some point, it seemed that Guseva stood up. Just got up and waiting for someone to take her in tow and drag her to the finish line. +3: 02.5 - the agony of the main favorite continued.
Our staff, to be honest, looked unnecessarily “heavy”. Coaches from other countries, with the exception of the French, took a chance and trusted in young people who craved fame and deeds. Instead of Bjoerndalen and Grubben, the Norwegians delegated Svendsen and Murch, the Germans relied on Hitzer and Wolf, and the newly-made world champions, the Swedes based on Helena Jonsson. The Russians too wanted to win, and in a conservative way. Before it's too late, it's worth making conclusions. By the way, the composition for the women's relay race has already been announced. There are still no young names in it: Malgina, Bogaliy, Anisimova, Gusev. All of them are not in good shape, and after today's race are psychologically depressed. Maybe you should take a chance? At least try ...
There are probably no complaints against Chudov and Yaroshenko. Our male half did everything possible to get into the top ten. In the traditionally successful form of the biathlon program, we performed modestly - worse than Italians and Chinese. Guilty, probably all. Including journalists who have raised the bar of medal expectations. The women's team is going through a difficult transitional season, men are only just reaching a higher level. Stability is sure to come. You just have to wait a bit.
The Swedes won. Happier Anna-Karin Olofsson this evening was not! She became the world champion for the first time and danced in joy with the lanky Bjorn Ferry, the troublemaker of this season. The French are second. Baverle-Robert, Bayi, Defrand and Poiret - such a company can not run badly and shoot. In third place are the Norwegians ...
But is this really important? We are the ninth.