In the men’s pursuit at the Commonwealth Biathlon Cup in Raubichi, there was almost no intrigue in the fight for victory – Eduard Latypov broke away from the very beginning and finished first.

But the Russian Daniil Serokhvostov and Belarusian  Anton Smolsky fought for the second and third places  , giving an unrealistic final – even by the photo finish it’s not immediately clear who is better, but in the end they were separated by five thousandths (0.005) of a second!

Here is their finish from the air Match! Arena:aa

• Serokhvostov and Smolsky had an amazingly synchronized race, both starting one after the other and sticking together until the finish line.

They even missed in the same way – 0-1-2-0 at the borders. There was someone else next to them for the whole distance – then Karim Khalili, then Nikita Porshnev, then Stepan Danilov and Alexander Povarnitsyn, but after the fourth line of the rivals, only Karim remained nearby.

Latypov could no longer catch up (more than 40 seconds behind), but the fight for the second/third places was expected to be tough. Smolsky joined immediately after the line, uncoupling Khalili, but Serokhvostov held on. Karim still loomed close for most of the circle, but on the last climb he gave up – he didn’t have enough strength anymore.

Serokhvostov hung behind Smolsky all the time, hoping for a final spurt. The idea was almost a success – the Russian got the Belarusian at the finish line and, it seemed, had done a leg up earlier.

Therefore, Daniel appeared on the scoreboard in second place, Anton – in third. And when they showed a frame from the photo finish, it didn’t increase clarity – everything is so close on the shoes, and it’s not clear who still became the second?

• It turned out that Smolsky crossed earlier – by 5 thousandths of a second (0.005)!

It seems that even in the legendary photo finish of Ole Einar Bjoerndalen and Rafael Poiret in March 2007, the gap was greater, although the Norwegian was only 3 centimeters ahead of the Frenchman.

Photo finish of an era in biathlon: the last race of Rafael Poiret, which Bjoerndalen accidentally ruined

Smolsky took silver, Serokhvostov – bronze. According to the protocol, 1 tenth of a second separated them at the finish – simply because smaller values ​​are not recorded as a result.

• Perhaps, Serokhvostov lacked a little distance – in Raubichi there is a short finish line, which the athletes enter immediately from the turn, and the Russian had to bypass the Belarusian on the outer radius.

But Daniil immediately congratulated the opponent: “Congratulations – pulled out!”

And then he told how everything was on the last lap: “I planned that the three of us would reach the finish line and figure it out already. But Anton immediately began to play tricks – I don’t know what else to call it. He immediately went to the point. I couldn’t catch it.

On the second climb, Anton sat down, and already I went out to pull, because Karim had already unhooked, and if we take him to the finish line, he can become the second. In the first climb, I decided to slow down, because I expected that the second one would be the key one. On the second climb, he shortened the distance in a couple of movements and was already sitting behind Smolsky.

I knew that Anton is not the fastest finisher, but still a strong athlete. I had a tactic to sit behind him and take the inner corridor. But he jumped out there, so I had to overtake him in a long radius. Well, it wasn’t enough. I felt that I was rolling it and knew that the split would decide.

Does he have longer legs? How he was born, this is already a claim to dad and mom (Serokhvostov’s height is 168 cm, Smolsky’s is 177 cm – Sports.ru) ”.

• And Smolsky admitted that he deliberately adjusted his move to Serokhvostov’s technique in order to win the finish: “Did you run in sync with Serokhvostov the whole race? I had my own separate race with him, regardless of the Commonwealth Cup!

I thought that we would go quickly, but in the end we went at a comfortable pace. They understood that they were losing to Latypov by 20 seconds. As a result, the tactics were correct, the forces remained until the finish lap.

On the last lap, I decided that Serokhvostov and Khalili were going slowly, and decided to accelerate. Until recently, it was not clear who came second. Fortunately, we managed to win half of the boot. I noticed how Daniil was pushing with his feet, picking up his step to be ahead when crossing the line.