21-year-old Alexander Kornev scored a sensational victory in front of all the leaders of the Russian team at the stage of the Russian Cup in Ufa. Experts previously noted the talent of the young man, but the success in the sprint in the capital of Bashkortostan gave a clear understanding that we have a new biathlon star. Who is Alexander Kornev?
Won IBU Junior Cup and got support from Fourcade
Yuri Kaminsky, head coach of the Russian national team, said in an interview with RIA Novosti that biathlon is now on the rise in our country. And now if the Russians were allowed to participate in the World Cup, our guys would show very good results there. Yuri Mikhailovich immediately after his interview seemed to know that the star of his ward, Alexander Kornev, would shine.
The 21-year-old Russian was born in Izhevsk and now represents Udmurtia in biathlon. The region is not currently the richest region in this sport, so in an interview with reporters after her first adult victory in her career, Sasha admitted that she hopes her success will help attract some sponsors. And it’s definitely worth the investment because Kornev has excellent prospects.
He won the IBU Junior Cup overall last season. Alexander was supposed to be the main character at the Junior World Championships in the USA, but our athletes were removed from the competition in the middle of the tournament. The reasons are quite understandable as the case was at the height of geopolitical tensions over the Ukraine crisis in March.
Then Sasha talked about the support she received from the French, Germans and Finns. The French biathlete and brother of Martin Fourcade Simon stuck the Russian flag on the booths where our athletes were. The removal of Russia caused Kornev to start in adult biathlon this season. There was no point in sitting on the youth team for another year in the country. But few would have imagined that Alexander would prove to be so great in his first season in the Russian Cup.
Already faster than Serokhvostov and others
It has consistently been in the top 10 of the nation’s overall Cup standings and has continually improved. After the individual race in Ufa, Sasha already took seventh place, and then that victory in the sprint. Kornev worked there without missing, this is a rare exception for him. In his adult career, these were often his first zeros. But in terms of speed, the young talent is already ready at the level of the best Russian biathletes.
What can I say, if the winning sprint is ahead of Daniil Serokhvostov, who also shot accurately and ran at the level of world biathlon stars in his first season at the World Cup. With two misses in the sprint, Serokhvostov finished eighth once, and that’s a crazy level for speed. Maybe only Eduard Latypov and Alexander Loginov can be with us so quickly. Now imagine Kornev defeating them all.
The role of Akhatova and Kaminsky in success
Among other things, Sasha had serious problems with weapons before the start of the season. I even had to change the stock with the help of our legendary biathlete Albina Akhatova. Kornev himself and his coach Yuri Kaminsky talked about his role in today’s success. Now, apparently, problems with the rifle have been resolved, which immediately affected the shooting. By the way, Kaminsky believes that Kornev’s path to zero on the turn is even faster than that of Serokhvostov, who can already be called one of the leaders of the main Russian team.
Now it is very important that Kornev does not reduce the requirements for himself and continues to work primarily on the shooting, because everything about skiing is great. The moment will come when Russia will return to international debuts, and then our skill should seriously surprise all opponents.
Source: Ria
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