Performance of Latvian biathletes in Annecy pursuit
Latvian athletes Renārs Birkentāls and Andrejas Rastorgujevs failed to demonstrate an improvement compared to the previous sprint results in the pursuit competition of the third stage of the Biathlon World Cup on the French track in Annecy. As Latvijas Sabiedriskie Mediji informs, Birkentāls took 39th place in the 12.5 kilometer distance, while Rastorgujevs finished in 47th position. Both representatives of Latvia faced considerable difficulties in the shooting range, each of them made four mistakes, which significantly affected the final result and prevented them from advancing higher after the starting position in the sprint. This stage was an important test before the end of the year and the upcoming starts scheduled after the New Year on the traditional German tracks.
Shooting results and dynamics of positions
Like Birkentāls, Rastorgujevs also represents the Latvian biathlon team at the World Cup stages this season together with Baiba Bendikas, Estere Wolff and other athletes. Pursuit events, in which athletes start at a time interval corresponding to their previous performance (this time in a sprint), often become a real reflection of today’s performance on the snow and in the range. Renars Birkenthal, who finished higher in the sprint, was in the 34th starting position in the pursuit. He had a total of four misses in the shootout on Saturday. Interestingly, in the division of shooting stages, Birkenthal missed two targets in the first prone shooting, but was flawless in the second prone shooting. However, he had to step into the penalty circle twice in both shooting stages.
Rastorguyev’s fight in the shooting range
Andrejs Rastorgujevs, who demonstrated a strong performance in Sweden at the beginning of the season, placing even 9th in the individual distance, did not stand out in the pursuit this time. His shooting record was also four fouls. Unlike Birkenthal, Rastorgujev’s first prone shooting was perfect – all targets were counted. Also in the second shooting lying down, he managed to close all the targets, which at times allowed him to climb up to the 35th position. However, the decisive problems came in the standing shooting, where two mistakes were made in each of them. These mistakes prevented him from really competing with the best and, accordingly, maintaining or improving his positions compared to his starting number.
Leaderboards and countdowns
The victory of the pursuit competition was celebrated by the overall leader, Norwegian Johan Ulav Botn, who demonstrated complete accuracy in the shooting range, shooting all 20 targets. He was followed by home Emilien Jacqueline, who finished second despite three penalty laps. Birkenthal finished 3 minutes and 38.8 seconds behind winner Botn in 39th place, which gave him World Cup points. Rastorgujev from Botna was 4 minutes and 28.5 seconds behind. Analyzing the speed of the track, Birkenthal had the 35th fastest skiing on the track, while Rastorgujev had the 49th fastest step in the competition of 56 biathletes. These results show that both athletes were competitive in terms of speed, but the discipline of shooting mainly determined their places in the competition table.
Next steps and context
Latvian biathletes will now prepare for the next starts within the World Cup, which will continue after the holidays in Oberhof and Ruopolding in Germany, as well as in Nove Mesto in the Czech Republic. These results in Annecy are a signal that the team needs to continue to work on shooting stability, especially in standing shooting, to be able to exploit the potential of good ski speed. Since the pursuit is one of the last disciplines at this stage, many athletes used it to test their readiness even before the Olympic Games, which will be held in February in Italy. After this stage, the biathletes will also have a mass start, in which the best 25 athletes according to the World Cup standings, as well as the owners of today’s best results, will participate.
