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Nikolai Krouglov
I followed Rozhkov and that was my mistake
One of the greatest WC 1 in Beitostolen sensations became the great performance by the 23-year-old Russian biathlete Nikolai Krouglov. The son of the two times Olympic champion 1976 got two silver medals.
On Thursday Krouglov Jr. took his start in the sprint race under the 4th number, far earlier than the majority of the main rivals. But fast skiing and perfect shooting let him beat everyone but for the magnificent Norwegian Ole Einar Bjoerndalen. A day after Krouglov became the second again, this time in pursuit. Although he yielded to the honoured German Sven Fischer, he managed to win the finish from his team mate Sergei Rozhkov, the best of our biathletes in the last season.
- To be frank, I prefer pursuit and mass start races, where one can see his rivals on the track and fight for the victory directly, - said Krouglov in an interview to Sport-Express, - where everything is happening on-line and you can make decisions of tactics right on the distance. Youre deprived of this in the sprint race, for example, where the task is to do the maximum of running and shooting. And after that you have to wait for the rivals to cover the distance.
- And what about the Saturday race, did you have to take any important decisions?
- Certainly! When I led the race for the finishing lap I wanted to do the first part of it as calmly as possible, but to let go at the very finish. But suddenly Sergei Rozhkov and Sven Fisher caught up with me and I had to decide who of them to follow. I decided to follow Rozhkov and that was my mistake.
- At the very finish you outstripped your team mate only for a slightest moment
- I dont know any compromise on the distance, no matter if the rival is a teammate or not, he is still a rival. And I felt myself able to compete with Sergei precisely at the very last seconds of the finish.
- I just wanted to ask about your finish with stretching forward your leg. Biathletes are not very frequent to use such a method.
- I pay special attention to this element and have separately been working on it for two months already. A situation when biathletes fight for the victory at the very finish is not so rare. So only parts of seconds matter in this case. It all means the necessity to work on the final spurt.
- And you had a chance to use it at the very first stage of the World cup!
- I often used it last year too, though didnt manage to show similarly good results. Its common for a finish among the second ten. And if you have a chance to win a couple of positions with an only movement, why not do it.
- You attracted the fans attention last season when for the first time rose up to the pedestal in the WC races
- There are single athletes that manage to rise to the highest positions juat at the very beginning of the career. The rest are to work and work and work. A certain level can be reached only taking some time and I have probably climbed a next step.
Theres no secret that biathlon is quite an aged sport. The leaders are usually about 30 years old or even more. Theres an explanation for it. Psychological firmness is a significant component of success, which is displayed in the most important element(from my point of view), I mean, shooting. For example, now one can win the sprint only being faultless or having no more that one error on the range.
- Can we say that your lucky hour has finally become and you now feel one of the leaders?
- Oh, a leader? I dont even know what to say Frankly speaking, the second position in the sprint almost shocked me. It was a great surprise firstly for myself!
- It means that a second shock for you was to start the second at the pursuit.
- Well, to a certain extent, yes. I have never been so high. A good pursuit position at the start is an advantage in pursuit. One should be able to use it properly, to elaborate corresponding tactics and to do the best. Being second at the start and having a good shooting you almost have a high final position guaranteed. The point is to realize it all in a proper way.
- I see a certain contradiction in your words. For one reason you say that the second place was a real shock, but for the other you are disappointed not to have struggled for the highest position in pursuit
- Theres no contradicion, the point is in the right estimation of the situation. I started the sprint race being the 4th and behind I had more than a hundred athletes and besides only leaders. I couldnt count for anything, could I? And it suddenly turned out that only Ole Einar Bjoerndalen managed to do the race better than I did. This second place is really a sort of sensation.
As for the pursuit, being the second I understood that I had a chance to struggle for the victory. On the track I was near Bjoerndalen, near Poiree and could see I went at their high level. Why not think of outstripping them then?
- What is your opinion, is the successful performance of our younger generation in Beitostolen casual or just natural?
- I think that we have never performed so well before. Last year we struggled to be among the top 30. It was a sort of great luck, I mean to get some WC points, to get to the mass start list, to the relay team. And now guys have other goals. Just look at Filipp Shulman, he was 14th in pursuit after starting the 26th. Isnt it great? To my mind our team is going through a change of generations now and its a natural phenomenon without any special decisions.
- A fresh stream reached the womens team a little earlier and the girls have already become known as leaders of the world biathlon. Why do you think the same process in the mens team is slower?
- The womens team had a weaker competition at a certain period of time. They had a couple of really strong biathletes and the rest were almost equal in their abilities. It was then when the coaches began introducing youngsters to the team. And the mens team has always been very strong and many of the athletes reached high places in the WC. It almost didnt let the younger athletes try their forces in the most important events.
And besides you should remember that nothing comes forward so quickly as we
could probably wish. One should take his time to get accustomed to this world.
For example, Ivan Tcherezov was 50th in the sprint, but he hadnt
slept the night before, worried a lot. Fans cant see it,, even coaches
sometimes learn such things only afterwards. We need time to get used to it
all. And you should take into consideration the competition. One can be the 4th
today, but only 34th tomorrow And, be sure, its natural of
todays biathlon, which has its 3 or 4 leaders and about 30-40 athletes almost
equal.
Lina KHOLINA
Translated from Russian by Wilhelmina.
Albina Akhatova:
Im not a single gram overweight
The Russian Albina Akhatova was one of protagonists of the first WC in Beitostolen. She yields some total score points only to the German Uschi Disl. Akhatova got the bronze in the sprint race, was the fourth in pursuit and contributed on the first leg to the relay victory.
- Was it difficult to struggle on the first leg with Disl who seems to be very strong now?
- It really was. Im glad to have coped with the speed that she offered. I had been so exhausted after the pursuit that could hardly imagine my performance in the relay. I was rather apathetic in the morning, but having heard the starting shot I forgot about weariness. And finally it was quite a success. I only failed to shoot perfectly well on the second range. It might have been because I did very much on the track trying not to fall behind Uschi. Fortunately she also lost some time on the range.
- It took you 50,4 seconds on the standing shooting, Disl lost 51,4. Besides the German used only one spare round when you managed to use two.
- You know, we dont notice such things during the race; still I felt her shooting slowly.
- Lets recollect the summer events. How did you spend it?
- Quite OK, working. The team was numerous this year,13 of us and the same number of men training together.
- What do you think of training together with the youngsters?
- When speaking about Russian biathlon in general, such a training manner is more useful. The youngsters can use it to learn from the experienced athletes. And I personally dont like it very much. Our coaches have to share their time and attention with everyone, consequently theres much difference between 8 and 13 athletes.
- Youve been in professional sport for a long time already and you must have learnt biathlon in general and yourself as an athlete in particular. Do you really still need a coach?
- It goes without
saying. We can train by ourselves, as for example do Sergei Tchepikov and
Sergei Rozhkov. But there are very few athletes that do so. And even they need
someone to help to train the shooting, to record it on a camera and then
analyse
the technical side.
- Its been a long time since our team presented such a good performance at the very beginning of the WC. How can you explain the Beitostolen success?
- Take for starters a highly planned and perfectly organized training. This year we started earlier our speed training. Each of us passed through 5 races by the beginning of the WC and above our internal training-races. It has been the first time we did our preparation this way. I started my speed preparation in September. Moreover last year I didnt start in the summer national Championship, when this year I didnt miss any start. I think it all was quite important.
- You know, Albina, you thinned a lot
- Oh, yes, I lost 4 kilograms. Im not a single gram overweight and now its much easier to ski.
- So, its not surprising that you surpassed in running those to whom yielded earlier.
- Frankly speaking, even though I became the third in the first sprint race, I didnt do all my best. I didnt manage to reach my maximum pulse regime. If I had done another effort, I would have possibly outstripped those 3-4 seconds from Disl and Henkel. Instead, the pursuit went out far better, almost on the maximum, but for my 4 errors.
- And the shooting in the sprint was perfect!
- When youre well prepared physically, you have a chance to concentrate well on the shooting. Still it doesnt guarantee an absolute result, as you can see. But Im very satisfied with my WC position. Previous years I was far from such a form in December. Its the first similar starting success for the past 5 years.
- What are your plans related to this? I mean, in the 2002/2003 you were the second at the end of the WC, last season was less successful, what are you looking forward to now?
- I think, any athlete dreams of the WC globe and I'm not an exception.
Lina
Kholina
