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A fully German day
Saturday pursuit was opened with a womens race. The sprint winner Uschi Disl didnt have a big advantage at her pursuers Henkel and Akhatova at the very start, but increased it to the first shooting. But the shooting brought more luck to Andrea Henkel, who was the first to leave the shooting range, pursued by the Russians Akhatova and Ishmouratova who also shot perfectly. The World cup holder Liv Grete Poiree was also faultless, which let her rise from the 15th position to the 5th place. After the 2nd shooting Henkel was still the leader due to the brilliant shooting.
At the middle of the distance we remembered the sprint race, when a duel between two team-mates. But this time the Russians seemed to be capable of winning over the German rivals. After the 3rd shooting Russian advantage even grew with Olga Pyleva being the leader and Bogaliy and Ishmouratova following her. Disl and Henkel fell behind because of shooting errors. I might have taken a dream for reality, but at that time that virtual Russian pedestal of mine seemed more than possible. But our hopes vanished at the last shooting session, when Pyleva and company couldnt cope with their nerves and it was the iron Uschi, who left the range first. Pyleva was 4.5 seconds behind her what made Russian coaches hurry her ahead, but unfortunately she was out of energy for the final effort. Uschi Disl won her second race. But the most interesting duel this time was for the third place. Albina Akhatova eliminated a 10-second gap that separated her from Martina Glagow and outstripped her. But she didnt manage to increase the advantage because of being tired after 4 difficult laps. Molly (Glagows nickname given to her by her fans) won the finishing spurt. The second round of the German-Russian duel was again taken by Uve Mussigang.
The mens race was highly predictable, as almost everyone predicted a new triumph for Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, the magnificent sprint winner. But biathlon, as it is, is so unpredictable that we shouldnt give the victory to anyone beforehand. At the very first shooting the Norweigian made three errors and presented his pursuers a chance. No doubt, it was Raphael Poiree, Bjoerndalens eternal rival, who used it in the best way. He led the race followed by a whole group of 4 or 5 biathletes. But it didnt take Bjoerndalen very much effort to outstrip them all and regain his leadership after the second shooting (when Poiree couldnt cope with his nerves). But the standing shooting turned to be fatal for Bjoerndalen today. He made 4 errors, which is impossible even taking into consideration his phenomenal speed. His punishment found him immediately being the 6th place and a time gap impossible to overcome. Poiree was the leader till the last shooting. There he must have remembered the latest World Championship pursuit race and lost his calmness. And then the good biathlon luck turned to those persons who were previously thought of as secondary actors, I mean Sven Fischer, Vincent Defrasne, Sergei Rozhkov and Nikolai Krouglov. The latter had firstly a little advantage, but then he realized the impossibility to improve it and went to the middle of the group. Rozhkov became the leader. But on the largest ascent of the distance, 800 meters before the finishing line Sven Fischer strove for the victory. The German has always boasted an extreme hardiness and no doubt he had more energy saved for the final lap. The Russians only had to fight for the silver medal. Krouglov was tactically more convincing: without trying to reach Fischer he saved the last effort for the finish, where he robbed a tenth of a second from Rozhkov. A free supplement to it will be the yellow leader skirt. A tenth of a second made Krouglov the leader of the World cup. Lets get accustomed to the name of a new biathlon star.
Ali, 12/05/2004, translated by Wilhelmina.
