Deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Dmitry Svishchev told that the lack of ammunition in biathlon is a catastrophic problem, because of which the sport could disappear in the country.
On Saturday, Anton Babikov made eight errors during the mass start as part of the YANGPUR MLCB Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk. The biathlete finished 23rd, 2 minutes 28.2 seconds behind winner Karim Khalili. After the race, Babikov told that he was ready to end his career if the coach did not find suitable ammunition for him.
— This is a serious problem for Russian biathlon. Babikov and Loginov are perfect for raising this topic; this cannot be suppressed. It seems strange to me that in our huge country we cannot find cartridges for biathletes. We have great potential to develop the sport, but we are not using it.
RBU Chairman Viktor Maigurov emphasized at a round table in the State Duma that we used to buy rifles and ammunition from the West, but we can no longer do this because of sanctions. Russian biathlon depends 80 percent on foreign suppliers. But we cannot always rely only on foreign colleagues; you have to start your own production. And that’s a problem in many areas.
At the same time, in Russia only one factory produces high-quality cartridges – and only a million a year, and biathlon needs 15 of them. The rest of the products are not of the best quality and the price is too high. They cannot find money to modernize production and importing equipment will cost 20 million euros, which is a huge amount. A disaster is happening! In the future, we may simply lose biathlon in the country!
I propose to convene our colleagues again for a round table to discuss this important issue. It is necessary at the state level to help biathlon and ensure that not only professional sports receive the necessary equipment, but there are also all opportunities to practice this sport at the regional and amateur level,” Svishchev told .
The first stage of the Alfa-Bank Commonwealth Cup will take place from November 22 to 24 in Khanty-Mansiysk. Watch the live broadcast of the starts on the channel, as well as on the websites matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru.
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Source : MatchTV
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