Belarusian Anton Smolsky and Russian Natalia Shevchenko became the winners of the skiing and biathlon qualification “TechnoNIKOL. Race of Champions” in Ryazan among biathletes.

Smolsky covered 5 km in 13 minutes 19.8 seconds and made one miss on four shooting ranges. Second place went to Alexander Kornev (+16.0; 2 misses), third place went to Alexander Povarnitsyn (+22.0; 2). Three-time Olympic bronze medalist Eduard Latypov showed the fifth result (+26.9; 3).

Shevchenko avoided mistakes and became the best among women – 14 minutes 18.6 seconds. Irina Kazakevich (+23.9; 1) had the second time, Belarusian Dinara Smolskaya (+32.5; 1) took third place.

At these moments, the skiers are qualifying.

Watch the live broadcast of the competition on the Match TV channel, as well as on the websites matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru.

The first start of the TECHNONICOL Race of Champions in biathlon and skiing will take place on January 3 in Ryazan.

On the first day, the athletes will perform in qualifications, based on the results of which the lineups for the mixed relay will be formed. The Match TV channel will show the qualifying races live from 11:30 Moscow time.

10 teams will take part in the relay, each with 4 athletes: a skier, a skier, a biathlete and a biathlete.

Biathletes Eduard Latypov, Alexander Loginov, Victoria Slivko, as well as Belarusian Dinara Smolskaya and others have been announced for the competition. The skiers will be attended by Sergey Ardashev, Veronika Stepanova, Tatyana Sorina, Natalya Terentyeva and others.

Also follow the progress of the qualifications on the websites sportbox.ru and matchtv.ru.

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Problems with snow for participants of the TechnoNIKOL ski and biathlon. “The Race of Champions” should not happen in Ryazan, said competition director, executive director of the Russian Biathlon Union (RBU) Alexander Pak.

On Monday, the RBU press service reported that three-time Olympic champion in cross-country skiing Alexander Bolshunov will not compete in the Race of Champions due to illness. The last participant in the race among skiers was Egor Mitroshin.

— We have decided on the final composition of the Race of Champions. The last vacant place among the skiers was taken by Egor Mitroshin. We were really looking forward to Alexander Bolshunov, but, unfortunately, he fell ill and even missed the Russian Cup stage in Kirovo-Chepetsk.

We have a forced replacement among the biathletes: instead of Anastasia Shevchenko, Inna Tereshchenko will perform, yesterday’s junior, who at the recent stage of the Alfa-Bank Commonwealth Cup in Tchaikovsky twice became a silver medalist.

Regarding the readiness of the stadium, I can say that the weather has been helping us as much as possible in recent days. Preparations are in full swing, the trails are covered with both natural and artificial snow. Worries about lack of snow are a thing of the past; there is no longer a shortage of snow. I am sure that on January 3 we will meet the athletes and spectators in full combat readiness,” Soviet Sport quotes Pak as saying.

Cross-country skiing and biathlon competitions “TechnoNIKOL. The Race of Champions will be held at the Ryazan Almaz stadium on January 3 and 4.