Biathlete Irina Kazakevich named the athletes she would include in the Russian women’s relay team and said she considers Tamara Derbusheva a true relay fighter.
The Sverdlovsk region team won first place in the relay at the Russian Summer Championships in Tyumen. Natalia Shevchenko, Irina Kazakevich, Anastasia Shevchenko and Tamara Derbusheva covered the distance in 1 hour 10 minutes 29.2 seconds with three penalty loops.
— If now it were necessary to form a Russian women’s relay team for international competitions, who would you include?
— If you look at the previous personal races, then these are Anastasia Goreeva, Victoria Slivko, Natalia Shevchenko, well, I will take myself (smiles). But relay races are a little different and it’s difficult, of course. Coaches have their own vision of the issue, their own approach. In other words, it is not always possible to look at personal races objectively. However, when we participate in international competitions, the best four people, based on the competition results, usually show up. Here the question probably arises more in stages.
And so, I believe that Tamara Derbusheva is a 100% relay fighter. It doesn’t matter that she’s my best friend, it’s her nerves of steel. It may not be the last step, it could be the first – she will definitely achieve it at the Olympics. That’s 200,000%. Even if she was not in the best functional physical condition, she would have qualified among the leaders,” Kazakevich told .
All races of the Commonwealth Cup and Russian Cup stages will be broadcast live on the channel, and broadcasts will also be available on the matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru websites.
Source : MatchTV

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