It’s unlikely that anyone could have predicted such an outcome in the women’s mass start.
Photo: © Dmitry Chelyapin / Match TV
The women’s biathlon mass start at the All-Russian Spartakiad of the Strong ended with a powerful sensation. The first place was taken by a little-known athlete, who had previously only competed in junior competitions. Now the whole country knows about it!
Yulia impressed with her confident move and excellent shooting.
Worked at the boundaries without a single mistake
30 biathletes competed in the mass start, held in Zlatoust (Chelyabinsk region). They had to run 12.5 km with four firing lines.
The start of the race was better for Elizaveta Kaplina, followed by Victoria Slivko and Anastasia Goreeva. After the first shooting, Natalya Shevchenko became the leader. At the same time, the gaps were minimal – for example, Natalya Gerbulova, who finished seventh, lost to first place by only 7.7 seconds.
The second shooting changed the situation in the leadership group. Slivko and Shevchenko retreated, and Goreeva, Irina Kazakevich and Anastasia Batmanova strengthened in the top three. They were pursued by Ekaterina Noskova and Yulia Sheller. The entire top five ran without misses.
Photo: © Dmitry Chelyapin / Match TV
During the race, Sheller caught up with Batmanova and generally showed good speed in the leading peloton. Yulia’s third shooting turned out better: hitting all five times, the biathlete from the Krasnoyarsk Territory came out on top. Kazakevich and Goreeva made a mistake, but retained their places in the top three. It is worth noting that following the results of the third shooting, almost all athletes from the top 10 had misfires – only Sheller had a zero in the misses column.
On the last lap, Kazakevich and Goreeva tried to catch up with the Krasnoyarsk driver and managed to win back a few seconds. But the last shooting finally strengthened Sheller’s leadership – Yulia performed without mistakes, while her rivals were inaccurate. Her lead grew to 46 seconds, and with such introductions, victory was guaranteed.
Sheller went to the stadium completely alone. Taking the flag of the Krasnoyarsk Territory from the Match TV correspondent and her fellow countryman Dmitry Zanin, Yulia crossed the finish line to a standing ovation from the public. Her result is 40:23:8. Natalya Shevchenko took second place (+18.9 seconds), third place went to Anastasia Goreeva (+39.3).
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Left the school where Medvedtseva and Romasko studied
After the victory, Julia Sheller admitted that she sang before the shooting in order to somehow distract herself. She also noted that she almost lost her advantage due to frost.
— I was driving before the line and distracted myself as best I could, singing TRITIA’s song “My Dream.” The audience screams, it’s very encouraging. In the middle of the last lap they told me that the advantage was 45 seconds, but it was cold, the snow was hard, the skis didn’t work well, and the muscles didn’t feel well either. After 12 kilometers, I was already quite tired and worked as hard as I could,” Sheller said on Match TV.
The victory of the Krasnoyarsk biathlete was good news for the local sports community. Recently, only Natalia Gerbulova had a chance for medals, while the rest had to fight for tenth places. But now there is a new big name.
— Yulia is still competing in juniors, but here she proved that she is already among the strongest biathletes in the country! I’m happy for the Borodino biathlon school, where Olga Romasko and Olga Medvedtseva came from,” Denis Petrovsky, Minister of Sports of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, told a Match TV correspondent.
I collected the whole set at the Spartakiad
Julia Sheller was born on January 19, 2002 in Zaozerny, a small town in the eastern part of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Her first biathlon coach was Nikolai Novikov. Yulia started training at a sports school in the city of Borodino, and now trains at the Krasnoyarsk Biathlon Academy with Lyudmila Panova and Vladimir Hertz.
Sheller was known only at the junior level, regularly taking prizes at Russian championships. Literally a month before the Spartakiad, she won three golds at the championship in the Yaroslavl region. At the adult level, Yulia did not show high results, although she participated in the national championship and Cup, and was also a member of the national team.
Julia Sheller / Photo: © Dmitry Chelyapin / Match TV
The Spartakiad was the first serious start where Sheller managed to loudly make herself known. In the sprint race, she unexpectedly took fourth place. Then there was bronze in the mixed relay and silver in the classical relay. And now Yulia has gold in the mass start. The whole set is assembled!
Scheller has long been considered a promising athlete who had to “shoot.” And she finally succeeded. Now there is another biathlete in Russia who is worth watching more closely.
2024-02-18 09:11:50
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