The Burden of Nepryaeva's Leadership
On Monday, in Tyumen, where the Russian roller ski racing championship continues, sprint races were held. As is tradition, the girls were the first to start. Darya Nepryaeva showed the best time in the qualification, and the winner of the individual race, Maria Istomina, was just a little behind her.
But the silver medalist of the previous race, Alina Pekletsova, did not make it to the final part of the sprint: she was 20.32 seconds behind Nepryaeva and finished only with the 53rd time. Anastasia Prokofieva, Arina Perevozchikova and Arina Kalicheva, who fought for bronze on Sunday and was only slightly behind Ekaterina Nikitina, also ended up outside the top thirty.
In the quarterfinals, Nepryaeva took off from the start, followed by Alena Baranova, and the girls finished in tandem, securing a direct entry into the next round. The second race was the most intense, with three strong contenders for two spots: Anastasia Kirillova, Tatyana Sorina and Elizaveta Pantrina. The latter led throughout the entire distance and confidently won, but a serious fight for second place unfolded at the finish. In the end, the Beijing Olympic champion lost to Kirillova by a mere 0.04 seconds, but thanks to her high pace of the distance, she made it through as a lucky loser.
Another ticket to the semi-finals in time was won by Alena Plecheva, who finished behind Istomina and Ekaterina Smirnova in the fourth, fastest, race. Evgenia Krupitskaya unexpectedly ended the fight. She was in the lead of the third six together with Anastasia Faleeva, but gave up in the second half of the distance and let two rivals pass her at once.
The semi-finals were quite dramatic. In the first, Nepryaeva took on the task of dragging her rivals along, for which she paid at the finish, finishing only in fourth place. The first two places were taken by Baranova and Faleeva, and Darya was separated from the third, which went to Kirillova, by 0.3 seconds. Nevertheless, both of them made it to the final, because the next race was much slower. It is worth noting that Smirnova won it with a result that was 4.65 seconds worse than Nepryaeva's. Istomina won the second place here, and Sorina did not even start.
The girls started the finals rather slowly: no one wanted to step forward and lead their rivals. In the end, Nepryaeva was the one who took the lead, with Faleeva and Baranova behind her. This trio ended up on the podium, although in a different order. The victory went to the multiple winner of sprint races last winter season, Faleeva, Baranova snatched second place, and Nepryaeva came in third.
Bolshunov again without medals
Ivan Gorbunov won the men's prologue. Sunday's race winner Saveliy Korostelyov was a third of a second behind him, and three-time Olympic champion Alexander Bolshunov was just under three. Quite a few famous skiers did not make it to the final: Andrei Larkov, Artem Maltsev, Andrei Sobakarev, Gleb Retivykh, Ermil Vokuev, Denis Spitsov and Alexey Chervotkin. Beijing Games champion Sergey Ustyugov did not start, although he was listed in the application.
As for the quarterfinals, Alexander Terentyev, Sergey Volkov, Sergey Ardashev and Korostelev easily decided to advance to the next round. But Ivan Yakimushkin surprised with a minus sign. He finished last in the first race - Gorbunov and Ivan Bezmaternykh advanced directly from it. In defense of the silver medalist of the 2022 Games, it can be said that this was the fastest race - both lucky losers slipped from it to the semifinals.
The quarterfinal with Bolsunov's participation almost ended in a sensation. Danila Karpasyuk decided to try to run away from the start and he almost managed to realize his idea. The young athlete was leading until the last meters, but Ilya Semikov and the Beijing champion literally overtook him on the tape. However, in the semifinal, Bolsunov failed to repeat the same trick, and, as the day before, he was left without tournament awards. Alexander, in the fight with Gorbunov and Terentyev, was only third. He did not get the lucky loser's ticket, since the second run was much faster. In it, Ardashev and Volkov again finished side by side, as in the quarterfinal, ahead of even Korostelev, but Saveliy and Konstantin Tiunov managed to break into the final on time.
And then an interesting fight unfolded. Korostelev and Gorbunov initially broke away from the others a little, but the experienced sprinter Terentyev, who had won more than one such race in his career, controlled everything. He accelerated before entering the stadium and snatched victory. After the finish, the athlete admitted that he did not really expect to fight for gold that day, but gradually found the right tactics, which brought him first place.
"I went into each race thinking that it would be my last, because I felt completely incomprehensible - it seemed good, but also something was wrong. In the quarterfinals, I realized that my signature move here is the finishing turn and the walk around the stadium. I told myself that I needed to be first or second on this straight, to save my strength for this section," Terentyev said in a comment to journalist Ivan Dokukin.
