General
Bolshunov’s return turned out to be a drama. Victory has slipped from our hands
Savely Korostelev deprived Alexander of first place in the mass start.
Alexander Bolshunov’s return to the Russian Cup took place in a race that turned out to be dramatic for many participants. It’s good that this time the titled skier was not involved in this.
But it’s also time for him to complain about failure after a missed victory.
First start after disqualification
Bolshunov missed the first two races of the second stage of the PhosAgro Russian Cup in Tyumen. The scandalous incident in Kirovsk is to blame, where the three-time Olympic champion attacked his sprint rival Alexander Bakurov in the back.
Bolshunov was punished with disqualification for his unworthy behavior. The Russian Ski Racing Federation (FLGR) decided to suspend Alexander until the injured Bakurov returned to duty.
For the 20 km classic mass start, both athletes appeared on the start list.
Drama at the finish line
In mass starts, something interesting rarely happens already in the first kilometers of the distance, but the track in Tyumen posed an impossible task for some athletes. On the first lap, a whole group of skiers failed to cope with the turn. Among the losers were Nikita Rodionov and Evgeny Semyashkin.
At the 4 km mark, Bolshunov took the lead, apparently missing his performances at the Russian Cup, but there were another dozen and a half competitors two seconds behind. But Bakurov completed the top 40, 8.3 seconds behind the leader.
The second and third rounds were routine, no one tried to escape. The slowness of the leaders led to the fact that at the 12 km mark there were 34 athletes in seven seconds. The drama unfolded in the fourth round with Ilya Poroshkin. On one of the climbs, he broke his pole, being in the depths of the leading group. Because of this, they could not give him the entire inventory for a long time.
The first attempt to break away occurred only at the 18th kilometer. Alexey Chervotkin tried to escape before the descent, but the Tyumen athlete’s skis worked worse than those of many of his competitors, so the escape was not successful.
The final showdown turned into a real drama for Ivan Gorbunov. The athlete, who had recovered from a spinal fracture, could have competed for medals, but fell on one of the last turns. At that moment, only Korostelev and Bolshunov were ahead of him.
The fall led to the fact that all pursuers fell behind the two leaders. But the three-time Olympic champion was unable to take advantage of the gift of fate, losing a quarter of a boot to Korostelev in the finishing line. The top three were closed by the leader of the overall standings, Sergei Ardashev.
— Today was a pretty tough race. I relied on flat areas, expecting that it would be a bit difficult on the climbs. When we crossed the finish line, I was confident of victory. I saw these couple of centimeters. The only thing is, I thought that they could give two first places, but definitely not first for Sasha,” Korostelev said after the finish.
Cross-country skiing competitions are shown live on TV channels of the Match family, as well as on the websites matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru.
Source: Sportbox
Thomas Astudillo is a sports journalist and author who writes for Sportish. He has a deep love and knowledge of sports, and is known for his engaging and informative writing on the latest sports news and events.
General
A 77-year-old Russian woman received an international award for the best gaming moment in the shooter CS2
Russian streamer Olga Ivanovna, known under the nickname i_olga on the Twitch platform, won the “Best Gaming Moment of 2025” category as part of the international NNYS award.
During one of the streams, a 77-year-old woman was able to create a so-called “ace” in the shooter Counter‑Strike 2 – the moment when one player defeats the entire opposing team. A video of this moment was widely shared on social networks.
The pensioner lives in Nizhny Novgorod. About 250 thousand viewers have subscribed to her channel.
The NNYS Awards annually celebrate significant moments and select the best videos across 16 categories.
Source: Sportbox
Thomas Astudillo is a sports journalist and author who writes for Sportish. He has a deep love and knowledge of sports, and is known for his engaging and informative writing on the latest sports news and events.
General
Degtyarev announced that the Russian side will appeal to CAS on December 10 due to the removal of biathletes from international competitions
The Minister of Sports of the Russian Federation, Chairman of the Russian Olympic Committee Mikhail Degtyarev said that the Russian side will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on December 10 due to the removal of biathletes from international competitions.
The Olympic meeting is taking place in Moscow on Wednesday. Russian biathletes were suspended from international competitions in 2022.
— Today we are filing a complaint with CAS regarding the suspension of biathletes.
Today in Switzerland we are filing a lawsuit against the International Biathlon Union. We consider the behavior of this organization absolutely disgraceful: blocking the access of the strongest athletes in this sport from our country, unfair competition. All arguments will be presented in court by our Swiss lawyers. I’m sure the outcome will be approximately the same as in cross-country skiing, where, as you know, we have already won and our athletes are already preparing for the World Cup stages in various ski disciplines in Europe, and I’m sure they will qualify for the Olympic Games in Milan,” the Match TV correspondent reports Degtyarev’s words.
Source: Sportbox
Thomas Astudillo is a sports journalist and author who writes for Sportish. He has a deep love and knowledge of sports, and is known for his engaging and informative writing on the latest sports news and events.
General
Bolshunov ignored the award after the drama at the finish line. No race without a scandal
The fans did not wait for Alexander.
Three-time Olympic champion Alexander Bolshunov, even without victories at international competitions, remains the most popular skier in the country. However, the athlete’s behavior has recently raised questions. At the stage after the finish, he pushed his opponent, for which he received a disqualification. Returning to the ski track, he committed another act that definitely does not suit him.
Alexander missed the victory at the finish line, and after the dramatic finale of the race he simply did not come to the award ceremony. What happened?
“No need to be dramatic”
On Sunday, December 7, in Tyumen, as part of the second stage of the Russian Cup in cross-country skiing, the strongest in the men’s mass start were determined. The best at 20 kilometers in the classical style was Savely Korostelev, who covered the distance in 41 minutes and 3.3 seconds. Alexander Bolshunov, who returned after disqualification, won silver. The gap from the leader was only 0.1 seconds – it was impossible to determine the winner of the duel without the help of a photo finish.
Immediately after the dramatic outcome, Alexander did not look upset. The three-time Olympic champion smiled and casually congratulated his opponent. It seemed that everything was in perfect order – today Bolshunov lost the fight for gold, but calmly accepted the situation and is ready to win in the near future. There was no doubt that the athlete was satisfied and the senior coach of the Russian cross-country skiing team, Yuri Borodavko.
— Alexander has returned. Getting in shape. As they said: no need to dramatize, everything is still ahead. He’s starting to get in shape. So he will still show his best side. Therefore, everything is increasing,” Borodavko told Match TV.
“I just flew away earlier”
Later, Alexander addressed the fans on social networks, thanking them for their words of support. But in the comments the skier was immediately asked why he didn’t come to the award ceremony? And indeed, Bolshunov, for some reason, ignored the ceremony.
Since the champion himself did not clarify the situation, all that remained was to sort through the options, including extremely unpleasant ones, such as health problems. Soon the coach answered for Bolshunov and tried to defuse the situation. It didn’t turn out very well, to be honest.
“He’s doing well, he just left earlier on a plane.” “I was on the way to the airport,” Borodavko told Match TV.
The fact that Bolshunov is doing well is certainly wonderful. But, based on Borodavko’s words, it turns out that simply leaving early by plane, giving up on the official ceremony, is the norm in Russian skiing… Or is this the norm only for Alexander himself? It smacks of disrespect, not only for the competitors, but also for the fans, who certainly didn’t mind seeing the legend again after the race.
Cross-country skiing competitions are shown live on TV channels of the Match family, as well as on the websites matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru.
Source: Sportbox
Thomas Astudillo is a sports journalist and author who writes for Sportish. He has a deep love and knowledge of sports, and is known for his engaging and informative writing on the latest sports news and events.
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