Heavy rain over Sapporo washed away salt from the wounds of Russian fans. On the eve of the race, in which we, not without reason (even taking into account the failures in the individual sprint), counted on a medal, it became known about the five-day disqualification of Evgeny Dementiev and Nikolai Pankratov. They found elevated levels of hemoglobin in their blood. The main hopes of the Russian national team were dispelled as quickly as the morning Japanese smog. Olympic champion Dementiev specially prepared for the duathlon, but now he will be forced to miss it. The Rochev - Pankratov shock team also broke up, on which the coaches made a conscious bet in the team sprint. I had to urgently make adjustments: Pankratova was replaced by the winner of the Krasnogorsk ski track Nikolai Morilov, the brother of Natalia Korosteleva.
"Go to battle"! Under this motto was the Day of Defenders of the Fatherland for Morilov. In the semifinals, we got almost all the favorites: Canadians, Norwegians, Swedes, Czechs. Many of the latter were discounted, but in vain: a pair of Milan Sperl and Dusan Kozhishek is in excellent physical shape (it is not by chance that they won bronze), especially Kozhishek is a medalist at the World Championships in Oberstdorf. The Russians initially sat behind the leaders, but at the last stage (there were six stages in the team sprint, three for each athlete), Rochev confidently walked around Devon Kershaw, winner of the Munich stage of the Tour de Ski, Peter Larsson, a young Norwegian, and unlucky Swede, fallen on one of the steep turns. For the Scandinavians, who included the two-time Olympic champion Bjorn Lind, the tragedy is indescribable: the Swedish fans instantly hid their massive banners.
In the final, it was worth fearing, in addition to the Norwegians Hetland and Northug, Italians Cristiano Dzordzi and Renato Panini. Ours departed from the cautious, expectant tactics of the preliminary races, tried from the very start to dictate the conditions to the leaders. But at the same time they did not consciously climb forward. Up to the finish line. Hetland, who fell on the descent, was left behind, his partner Nortug, with all the desire to catch up with the fast-moving international duo Rochev - Dzorzi could not. The fate of gold was decided on the last meters: the Italian was half a meter ahead of the rapidly rolling Rochev. The photo finish first identified the champions of the Russians, but after a few seconds it signaled the Italian success. Rochev and Morilov were not upset. In such circumstances surrounding the race, silver is akin to a feat.