General Director of the International Club Biathlon League (ICBL) Alexey Nuzhdov said that in the new season relay teams will be formed not on a regional basis, but on an extraterritorial basis, which will make the starts more spectacular.
The MLKB Cup will take place in Khanty-Mansiysk. On November 16, a mass start will take place, and on November 17, a mixed relay will take place, in which 15 teams from Russia and Belarus will participate.
— Supporters and journalists wrote to us about club teams: “Where are the clubs? The same regions are performing well. This is a completely fair criticism. We are now recruiting teams on an extraterritorial basis. There are probably already rumors about the compositions, I have already partially named them. They will come from completely different regions, they will have the names of the club teams. — On what basis are the teams formed?
We focused as much as possible on the interests of direct participants in the competition. We are in very close dialogue with the athletes regarding the holding of the competitions, we have consulted them and together we have set the task of making the competitions as spectacular, interesting and competitive as possible. And we came to the conclusion that the principle of team building would be extraterritorial.
When teams are formed on a regional basis, the competition is relatively predictable, as has been the case in recent races. Although the relay races were exciting, in the women’s relay there were two teams fiercely fighting for first place, as there were restrictions and the composition was regulated by a regional framework. We want to do this, and this will be the case, this will be particularly visible in the mixed relay, that the strength of the teams formed will correspond to international competitions. For example, in a team that has a general sponsor, Karim and Nasti Khalili will perform, and they come from completely different regions, one could even say from competing regions – this is Moscow and the Moscow region. And I, as president of the regional federation, said with pleasure: please let Nastya compete not for a team where there will be our regional representatives, that is, athletes from the Moscow region, but for another, where there will be an athlete from Moscow. There is also Daniil Serohvostov from the Novosibirsk region and a fourth participant from another region. The team will be powerful, it will be represented by the strongest athletes from four different regions. The Belarusians are also traditionally a strong team. Kristina Reztsova and Polina Shevnina, who come from the same region, will have guys from other regions, the team will also be extraterritorial and competitive with Khalili’s team.
It is unlikely that we will be able to put together such a competitive squad at the Russian Championship and Cup. It’s just that the requirements of the Russian Championship or Cup do not allow combining such strong athletes into one four. There are other teams, when the performance comes out, you will see that five or six relay teams will be very strong, and you cannot say in advance that some of them are favorites and some are not – there are more teams than places on the podium, will be completely competitive. There will be intrigues for both spectators and athletes,” Nuzhdov told .
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Source : MatchTV
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