The first medal of Anton Shipulina – Kommersant

Biathlon

first medal in the individual race in his career – a bronze – yesterday won the fifth stage of the World Cup in Ruhpolding, team leader of Russia Anton Shipulin. He is the winner Frenchman Martin Fourcade, and became the second Austrian Simon Eder, four firing line 20-kilometer race made a mistake.

After incompetent for the entire Russian team of the fourth stage of the World Cup, suffering from snowless Oberhof in Ruhpolding, in the six races which our biathletes even close at the pedestal he was not observed , yesterday’s bronze Anton Shipulina in the fifth stage of the perceived almost as Olympic. It is interesting that our leader during the years of performances in the main team of the country put together a decent collection of various awards, but never before observed in biathlon classics – the individual race at 20 km.

However, the current success Tyumentsev and decent performance of Maxim and Evgeny Tsvetkov Garanicheva, finished fifth and sixth, have their reasons. It seems that the first of our trio managed to adapt to the plain Ruhpolding and its rather loose track after a New Year’s gathering, which the Russian team had the occasion and, as a consequence, on the track smoother Austrian Hochfilzen. “When an athlete is not very well prepared functional, it just drags and trouble shooting. Appears uncertainty, fear of making a mistake. And when you realize that you walk away from the leaders, the mood is quite different than when you fight for medals”, – commented on the failure of his players in Ruhpolding last week, head coach Alexander Kaspiarovich.

The success of Anton Shipulina important role played by the psychological factor. The fact that on the eve of the season and his entire first half of the athlete, as well as his many fans had hoped that he would be able to impose the struggle for the Big Crystal Globe of his four-time Martin Fourcade. Now, when SHipulin, who won at the moment only three bronzes personal race, took seventh place in the overall World Cup, and between him and the Frenchman was formed huge gap – more than 200 points, it became clear that victory in the standings of the World Cup it not to be seen. Man relaxed and began to enjoy the creativity on the track, focused, probably at least another prestigious goal – March World Championships in Holmenkollen, Norway. After all, no one individual World Championship gold with a record in the relay of the Olympic champion from Russia is neither.

Start Anton Shipulin not in the first group of participants, most likely he would be able to receive the money yesterday. The fact that the race predicted heavy snowfall, and in such conditions as trails are not turned to mush, get the advantage of the first number. But half an hour into the race, snow had stopped, in addition, it froze, and trails zaglyantsevalas. Naturally, Simon Eder, who started much later and, by the way, a few days ago, showing excellent shape, won the sprint here, escaped much more comfortable than his Russian counterpart.

“Today felt better than in the previous stage, – said Anton Shipulin the TV channel” Match TV “, knowing that he and Alexey Volkov exactly run here baton in pyatnitsu.- service well prepared skis, two days to work closely with Kaspiarovich on laser shooting simulator, so today I do not get hung up on shooting. One slip – a good result for me. But the group was wrong. Later on the track appeared gloss, and those who started later, we had an advantage. We spent more training under snow, and it is on this slide was a lot of work. Therefore, in the last stage, we were not ready for the icy road. But that’s no excuse. We have to adapt to any conditions. ”

Meanwhile, yesterday’s victory for Martin Fourcade was the 44th in a row won by them in the races of the World Cup and second in a row in Ruhpolding (Sunday he excelled here in the mass start). In addition, the Frenchman is firmly in the lead in the standings and individual races.

Valeria Mironova

The fifth stage of the World Cup in Ruhpolding (Germany)

 

 

Men. Individual race. 20 km

 

1. Martin Fourcade (France) – 50.53,9 (1 penalty minutes). 2. Simon Eder (Austria) – lag 17.5 (1). 3. Anton Shipulin – 28,9 (1) … 5. Maxim Tsvetkov – 58,0 (0). 6. Eugene Garanichev (all – Russia) – 1.07,0 (1).

 

Overall standings. 1. Fourcade – 601 points. 2. Be Tarja – 438. 3. Emil Hegle Svennsen (both – Norway) – 434. 4. Quentin Maya Fillon (France) – 376. 5. SHipulin – 371. 6. Ole Einar Bjoerndalen (Norway) – 366. 7. Garanichev – 343 … 17. Tsvetkov – 227.