On Saturday, January 23, the seventh stage of the Biathlon World Cup, which takes place in the Italian Razun-Anterselva, will continue. We bring to your attention the forecast for the men's mass start at 15 km.
The high-altitude stage in Antholz again gave joyful emotions to Russian fans. Traditionally, our men performed strongly here, and on Thursday Anton Babikov won the individual race here, and Karim Khalili won the bronze medal. It will be difficult to expect a repeat of success from them, given that Babikov is still not very strong in terms of pure speed, and it will be difficult for him to claim success in a contact race. We don't expect anything at all from Khalili, since he won't run this race at all, according to the decision of the coaching staff.
Bookmakers single out four main contenders for victory - the Be brothers, another Norwegian Legrade, as well as Frenchman Fillon-Mafe, who failed in the individual race. The Norwegian brothers simply had no equal in terms of pure speed in the "individual" - Johannes was ahead of Tarja by 15 seconds, which is quite a bit, as for such a long distance. But Johannes continues to shoot unstably for the second season in a row. In the first mass start of this season, Be Jr. smeared 5 times, while the older brother overcame only 1 penalty lap. In the individual race, Tarja lost 10 seconds to Babikov, who shot perfectly, but even snipers should not stop him in the mass start.
Johannes Be should still be high enough, at least higher than Kentin Fillon-Maillet, who also does not know how to cope with gusty winds, and in Antholz frequent and very strong. The young Norwegian Sivert Bakken looked good in the first mass start of the season, who should beat Czech Michal Krchmarz. Philip Andersen is also able to work efficiently at the frontiers, while Daniil Serokhvostov continues to lack stability. It is very interesting how Eduard Latypov performed after the coronavirus and two weeks of isolation. Even the athlete himself admitted that he does not know what form he is in now, and bookmakers do not even offer any odds on him. You can try to play against the German Johannes Kuhn, who also just got over covid, but he was only on isolation for a week.
