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From December 3 to 6, the second stage of the Biathlon World Cup took place in Kontiolahti, Finland, within which sprints, relay races and pursuit races were held. The last stage was rich in interesting events, which we propose to know in our traditional review.
Stage brothers
The second stage of the World Cup began with a men’s sprint on Thursday. World Cup overall leader Johannes Thingnes Boe was the clear favorite in the race, but a prone penalty only earned him a bronze medal.
Johannes’ mistake was taken full advantage of by his older brother Tarja, who showed excellent speed on the track and perfect shooting accuracy. Among the Bo brothers in the final protocol was the German Arnd Peiffer, who also did it without flaws in the firing lines.
Men’s sprint results
Sisters on stage
Thursday turned out to be a family day, as the Swedish Oeberg sisters supported the Bo brothers’ success. Hannah had 10 concealed goals under her belt and won her second win of the season, while Elvira made one of the missed shots on her own. However, for Eberg Jr. this is her personal World Cup debut podium, so she was probably pleased with this success. Especially if you consider that they managed to do this together with my sister.
Hannah and Elvira Oeberg
“This day is very significant for me, because it is our first common pedestal with Elvira. She is incredibly strong. This doesn’t surprise me because we train together every day. We constantly motivate ourselves, improve and conquer new heights. But I still want to be the best in the family. I hope they talk about us now in the same way as the Beo brothers, ”Hannah said after the race.
Return stage
Another significant event in the women’s sprint was the first hit in the top three after the decree of the French Anais Chevalier. Last week, the 27-year-old Bialonite showed a willingness to compete after a lost season and it is therefore difficult to say that her second place is a sensation. Just 10 seconds was not enough for Anais to overtake Hanna Oeberg and claim her first sprint victory of her career.
But for Anais’ younger sister Chloe Chevalier, the second sprint of the season turned out to be a failure. The 25-year-old Frenchwoman was forced to execute three penalty loops and struggled to qualify for the chase, finishing in 59th place.
Ukrainian stage
But Ukraine in the women’s sprint race was only represented by one of the sisters. The coaching staff decided to purposely prepare Vita Semerenko for the relay, so that Valya could hear her sister’s support only if she was standing on the track. It is not known if Vita followed the course of the race, but Valentina showed the best personal performance of the Ukrainians this season, taking ninth place.
Daria Blashko also managed to train without errors on the shooting lines. The ex-Belarusian on this occasion also showed a good ski slope and finished the race with the 18th result, a second after repeating the best personal result of her career. But anyway, in the sprint, Blashko has yet to reach the top 20, so this performance can be considered an advantage.
Valya Semerenko
Women’s sprint results
Advancement stage
The men’s chase was unsuccessful for the best in the sprint. Tarjei Boe and Arnd Peiffer missed their launch and flew out of the top 10. But Sweden’s Sebastian Samuelsson, who is the silver medalist at the 2018 Olympics, confirmed his class and made a breakthrough from the 18th starting position! until the first final! In the first three stages he did so without fail, and in the last he missed a goal, while Johannes Boe immediately went to two penalty circles.
In the final loop, Samuelsson, without much competition, raced alone to the finish line, having achieved his debut career World Cup victory. And Johannes Boe in the second consecutive race became the third, passing in front of the French Fabien Claude on the finish lap. Also, Claude, like Beo Jr., made three mistakes, but unexpectedly turned out to be faster on the track.
But the coolest breakthrough was made by Frenchman Emilien Jacquelin. After a disastrous performance in the sprint, he reached the distance only 39, but managed to make up 31 positions at once and finish eighth! Had it not been for two misses in the last shootout, Emilien might even have fought for a medal.
Unfortunately, the Ukrainians in men’s fashion failed to improve their starting positions. Artem Prima, who closed the top 20 in the sprint, fell to 26th in the final protocol. And Dmitry Pidruchny was ranked 38th, losing two positions from the start.
The male search results.
Autumn stage
In the women’s relay, the teams from Sweden and Norway were considered the top favorites before the start of the race. But after the first shooting, the ambitions of the Norwegians changed dramatically. Caroline-Offigstad Knotten, who was entrusted with the starting role, flew off the track on the first lap, so she didn’t waste as much time. Knotten lost much more on the set, where the fallout was sideways.
Carolyn is having big trouble with the rifle. And although he managed to avoid penalty circles, after the first stage, Norway were losing to the leaders for up to two and a half minutes. An attempt by Tiril Eckhoff to regain the distance only made the situation worse: after the stands, the Norwegian had to run three penalty circles. As a result, thanks to the efforts of Martha Olsby Royseland, the Norwegians took eighth place, not the worst result in this scenario.
And the Swedes won, who tried to compete with the French, but this attempt was not crowned with success. In addition, the Swedish team has not won the women’s relay for almost ten years, since the days when Helena Jonsson and Anna-Karin Olofsson played for him. But now the Swedes have assembled perhaps the strongest team in history, so the next success will likely be very soon.
The Ukrainians fought for the medals for a long time, but the penalty loop and low speed on the track in the third stage, where our team was represented by Vita Semerenko, allowed Elena Pidhrushna to compete only for fourth or sixth place. As a result, Pidgrushnaya finished fifth, nine seconds behind the Russian.
Women’s relay results
Stage failure
The French team had a good chance of imposing the fight on Norway in the men’s relay. But Emilien Jacquelin, who was tasked with running the first stage, was keen to win his stage and took three penalty circles at once on a standing shot. After that, the French had practically no chance of returning to the fight for the medals, they only took eighth place.
Norway won without problems, and second place went to the Swedish team, which left the Germans only bronze medals. The Ukrainians closed the top 10. After the first two stages, in which Prima and Pidruchny played, our team was among the contenders for the medals, but then Tkalenko and Tsymbal began to lose a lot to their opponents at a distance.
Men’s relay results
The surprise of the stage
Tiril Eckhoff went to the start of the chase wearing the leader’s red bib, but few believed that she could fight for victory, because at the start of the season the Norwegian showed an unstable shot. But this time he managed to work out perfectly on the shooting lines and leave behind a red jersey. This is Eckhoff’s first victory and the first podium of the season.
But the second and third places in the goal circle were played between the Swedish Hanna Oeberg and the Norwegian Marthe Roiseland. It was the latter who managed to save more strength for the final stage of the race and climb to the second step of the podium.
One of the Ukrainian women was also pleasantly surprised. Daria Blashko took a penalty in the first stage face down, but then unmistakably worked on the remaining lines and finished 12th. For her, this is the best result of her career at the World Cup.
Women’s search results
2020/21 biathlon season: schedule, announcements, broadcasts, results
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