Zelenograd biathlete Matvey Eliseev became the champion of Europe

04.03.2020
Zelenograd biathlete Matvey Eliseev became the champion of Europe

Matvey Eliseev, a biathlete from Zelenograd, a few days after the completion of the not very successful World Championship for him, started at the European Championship in Belarus.

In the Super Sprint discipline, he did not qualify for the finals, taking 33rd place in the qualification with two misses. A little later Matvey commented on this failure in a television interview: “It was disastrously difficult for me. Perhaps this is an adaptation from the fact that we have been in the mountains for a long time”. Coaches of the Russian national team did not include Eliseev in the mixed relay.

In the sprint, the rested Matvey started at No. 39. The leading biathlete of Latvia Andrei Rastorguev went right ahead of him. After the first line, the Baltic athlete, who shot without mistakes, was in the lead. Eliseev entered one penalty loop and was in 10th intermediate place. Then the Latvian missed once, and the Russian was accurate. On the control cut-off after the 2nd line, Eliseev was the first. Rastorguev was 7 seconds behind. At around 8.4 km, they switched places, now the Russian was inferior to the second with a little. But in the final segment of the distance, Matvey stood and endured, and when crossing the finish line he showed time 4 seconds better than Rastorguev. There is the first personal victory at the European Championship! Recall that in 2019, the European Championship was also held in Belarus, and Matvey then won the “silver” in the pursuit.

This biathlon discipline completed the tournament. The conditions of the race were difficult: a difficult wind situation at the shooting range, a “soft” track breaking every lap. Eliseev scored 5 misses on four lines (2 on the first, one on the rest). He held on 5-6 places, but finished seventh.

From Belarus, Matvey went to the Czech Republic, where the next stage of the World Cup will take place in the town of Nove Mesto.