Russian Sprint champs: Double victories

Test races for WOC-sprint were completed by Russian championships in Sprint, mass-start. Andrey Khramov and me won another gold medals.

Qualification race for the final was a sprint with individual start. First 24 runners came to the final. I took it easy and have been qualified without problems. Results from qualifications are here (in Russian).

Map from qualification race for mass-start.

Mass-start was with forking by FARSTA method.  There were 16 variations at two loops of such sprint on-men-relay.

Map of my first loop (final mass-start race)

Map of my second loop (final mass-start race)

For sprint mass-start and sprint relay always exists some unfair element with different length of forking for the first and second loops. E.g., if you have long forking at the first loop (favorable case) then you are a little bit behind runners with short forking. Because of good visibility it is possible to close the gap. And the next loop you run a short forking (and proceed to the top position) but other runners (with long forking for the next loop) dont have enough power (and time) to close the gap.

Unfortunately, I have a short forking in the beginning. But I was ready for this. Mike and me know about such risk and decided to use frontal tactics: push really hard all the way. I was in the lead at all common controls. I had two small imperfections with compass at the second loop (#3 and #4), but otherwise navigation was good.

24 girls at the start line

 Start of Russian championships in Sprint (mass-start)

 I was pushing hard all the way from the start...

...to the finish.

Result list for women and for men is here (in Russian). Summary in English for women:
1. Vinogradova Galina 17:04
2. Mironova Svetlana 17:18
3. Vinogradova Natalia 17:32
4. Tikhonova Anastasia 18:04
5. Novikova Julia 18:16
6. Voitova Alexandra 18:20

Prize giving ceremony - another nice prize from Ascona

and for men:

1. Khramov Andrey 17:15
2. Sidorov Alexey 17:17
3. Detkov Sergey 17:18
4. Tikhonov Gleb 17:19
5. Nakonechniy Dmitry 17:24
6. Kozyrev Andrey 17:31

Andrey Khramov is unbeatable

Andrey won second sprint title as well.

These two competitions (Russian Sprint championships individual start and Russian Sprint championships mass start) have WOC-test status. Victory in one of the races gave access to WOC sprint. According to selection criteria right now Andrey Khramov and me are selected directly. Other 2 men and 2 women will be decided later.

P.S. Photos from Anatoliy Borisov
P.P.S. Some new photos are added to the story from first day of Russian sprint championships (indiv.start).