“Tsvetkov and I are fans of each other.” Latypov wins victory in relay race and jokes about gifts

On Sunday, September 17, the team of the Republic of Bashkortostan won gold in the men’s relay at the Alfa-Bank Russian Summer Biathlon Championships, which is taking place in Tyumen. Ilya Burlakov, Anton Babikov, Alexander Babchin and Eduard Latypov covered the distance in 1 hour 17 minutes 28.7 seconds without penalty laps.

The second place was taken by the team from the Tyumen region (Evgeniy Garanichev, Alexander Povarnitsyn, Alexander Loginov and Vyacheslav Maleev), the top three was completed by the KhMAO-Yugra team (Dmitry Ivanov, Petr Pashchenko, Mikhail Burundukov, Nikita Porshnev).

After the race, the correspondent learned from Latypov from whom he was expecting a T-shirt as a gift and how his life changed after the birth of his second child.

— You have your first zero for summer departures this year. Did the effect of the relay race and the increased level of responsibility work?

– And there is some truth in that, but in any case, I try to do my job well in every race – today it worked. I’m trying to correct some problems and shortcomings encountered in other races. Now everything went well, I was able to work from scratch.

— During the third passing of the relay, Bashkortostan lost 43 seconds against the leaders. What thoughts did you have at the beginning?

— With the fighting spirit, with the hope of being able to do everything correctly, because there are always chances in relay races. I thought about my tactics, my mood for the race – that’s where I started from. I realized that I had to do my own race and look at the situation to see what the layout of the laps and shots would be.

— Where and how did you follow the first three steps? Doesn’t this add unnecessary emotions?

— I followed two stages in wax, then, from the third stage, I went out to warm up to prepare for the start.

Naturally, I’m worried. There are still internal feelings about the team, but they are more restrained – there is control over emotions. However, you can’t watch him without any emotion, because you worry about the team and support them, but you try to hold back.

— How late must the baton be passed to you so that you cannot finish first?

— Each relay develops differently. Sometimes you can play for two minutes, sometimes you can’t even play for 20-30 seconds. It depends on the condition of the athletes of other teams, and on the racing conditions, it doesn’t matter – in summer or in winter. All relay races are different. Whatever the gap, I go out and try to do my job well.

— Tsvetkov went to the award ceremony in Sochi wearing the cap of the Latypov fan club. How did you react to this?

– Yeah cool. I gave this to him and he politely accepted it. So now he is my fan (smile). Now I’m waiting for his “It’s Not Flowers for You” T-shirt, I’ll wear that too. So we are fans of each other.

— Which fan club cap would you wear?

– Whoever gave it would have worn one (laughs). I am ready to support athletes, my friends. It is very good.

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— This summer, you became a father for the second time, how has your life changed with the birth of your second child? Maybe you miss home even more now?

– Yes, I miss home even more, because the responsibility has become twice as great. I try here, in my work, to perform well to please my family, my children.

— Were you with your family when your second daughter was born?

— I was present at my wife’s birth. It is a very joyful event, such important moments do not happen so often, and it is definitely worth it and leaves a big imprint on the heart, a good one, for life. These are the happiest moments in life.

All Russian Championship races are broadcast live on the channel and broadcasts are also available on the matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru websites.