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Latvian biathlete Andrejs Rastorgujevs today in the second stage of the World Cup in Kontiolahti will conduct a race.
The men’s 12.5-kilometer driving competition will start at 14.20 Latvian time, broadcasting it live on Latvian Television Channel 7 (LTV7).
The leading Latvian biathlete Rastorgujev will start according to the place in the sprint, going to the track with number 42. He made a mistake in both rifles from time to time in the sprint race on Thursday and was one minute and 48.7 seconds behind the winning Norwegian Tarje Bay.
German biathlete Arndt Peifer will be the second after 13.9 seconds, and the winner’s brother Juhann Tinggnes Bay will be third on the track 29.4 seconds behind Tarjee.
The fourth will be the Swiss Benjamin Weger, the fifth – the Norwegian Erland Bentegard, the sixth – the Slovenian Jakov Fax.
This will be the first driving race this season.
Rastorgujev, with three points, ranks 27th in the overall World Cup after three competitions. The leader with 162 points is Juhann Tinggnes Be. Tarje Be and Sweden’s Sebastian Samuelson have 115 points.
Last season, the Frenchman Emiljen Jacqueline won the Small Crystal Globe in the discipline. Norwegian Juhann Tinggnes Bä triumphed in the overall ranking of all disciplines.
On Thursday, Roberts Slotiņš finished in the sprint in the 79th place, Kirils Matjuhins in the 98th place and did not enter the top 60 biathletes who got the right to participate in the ride.
In the first stage of the season, which also took place in Kontiolahti last week, Rastorgujev took 21st place in the 20-kilometer individual distance, and 23rd in the sprint.
Last season, Rastorgujev Kontiolahti retreated to 35th place in the sprint after 35th place in the sprint, shooting six times past the target. His best drive in the previous season was the 19th place in Hohfilzen, making a mistake in the shooting range only once and stepping out of 39th in the sprint.
The best place in the World Cup in driving for the leader of the Latvian national team is the fourth place won in the 2013/2014 season in Oberhof.
On Thursday, the only representative of Latvia in the women’s competition Annija Keita Sabule shot all ten goals and took the high 69th place in the competition of 103 athletes.
A 4 × 6 kilometer relay for women, in which Latvia does not participate, will start on Saturday at 4.15 pm, but on Sunday there will be a chase for women without the participation of Latvian representatives and a 4 × 7.5 kilometer relay for men, for which the Latvian four have entered.
The Latvian national team participates in an unusual composition in the first two stages.
It has already been reported that Bovila Baiba Bendika and the head coach of the national team Ilmārs Bricis, who do not participate in the first two World Cup stages, had positive tests at the Covid-19 training camp in Sweden.
Slotiņš, Sabule and Rastorgujev were the first to come to Finland. Athletes in Sweden – Aleksandrs Patrijuks, Sanita Buliņa and Edgars Mise – went home as a precaution, but in Finland juniors Rūdis Balodis, Renārs Birkentāls, Kirils Matjuhins and Ieva Pūce joined the team last week. Intars Berkulis, who has been in Finland since last Monday, will be the head coach of Kontiolahti in the first two stages.
After Kontiolahti, two World Cup stages will take place in Hohfilzen in December. Athletes will start the new year with two stages in Oberhof, but a stage in Antholz-Anterselv is planned. Pokļuka will host the world championship in February, followed by two stages in Nove Mesto, and the end of the season is scheduled for the second half of March in Oslo.
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