At the seventh stage of the Biathlon World Cup in Whistler, Canada, the Russian men's team failed to meet expectations in the 4x7.5 km relay and finished only seventh. The team made too many shooting misses and lost more than two minutes to the winning Swedes.

On Sunday, the seventh stage of the Biathlon World Cup concluded on the Olympic course in Whistler, Canada. After the women’s team’s not entirely successful “bronze” performance in the relay, Russian fans had high hopes for the men’s relay.
Alas, those hopes were not meant to be fulfilled.
Ivan Cheresov, Yevgeny Ustyugov, Andrey Makoveev, and Maxim Chudov were entered for the men’s 4x7.5 relay. Just a few days earlier, the senior coach of the Russian men’s team, Vladimir Alikin, noted: «We tried to bring the athletes to the World Championship in the best possible condition. The peak of form has passed, and we have what we have».
Cheresov showed good speed in the first kilometers of the distance and led the pack. On the prone stage, Ivan had to pay for the speed he had shown, using three extra cartridges. And leaving the shooting range, Ivan found himself last, 16th, more than 47 seconds behind Frenchman Vincent Jay, the triumphator of the individual race.
As he approached the standing stage, the Russian improved his position, moving up to 15th place and cutting the gap to 42 seconds. And once again Ivan was inaccurate, using one reload. Jay, having missed twice, retained the lead, Austrian Mesotitsch was second, and Schlesinger third. Cheresov was running 14th, 52 seconds behind Jay.
It seemed that by the time of the handoff Ivan would reduce the deficit, but that did not happen. Cheresov, as they say, was “knocked out,” and by the end of his leg he was trailing Norwegian Frode Andresen, who had surged into the lead, by a disheartening 1 minute and 17 seconds.
Yevgeny Ustyugov, having received the baton from Cheresov, ran not very fast, but he performed the first shooting excellently. Leaving the shooting range, Ustyugov was 1 minute and 14 seconds behind the leader, Czech Zdenek Vitek, and was in 11th place.
By the end of his distance, he nevertheless improved the situation somewhat and finished 8th.
The two remaining Russians did not improve matters much either: they were behind the leaders in both speed and shooting. The Russian team, having used a total of 15 extra shots, finished only seventh, losing more than two minutes to the winner — the Swedish team.
Russian fans will have to see out the relay season in a subdued mood. Let us hope that in the individual races Russian athletes will perform more honorably.