Vilaty Fatianov Memorial Competitions have ended in Petropavlovsk- Kamchatsky. Pursuit race was the decisive start. The German Kati Wilhelm, for whom this start was the last one in her career, got the first prize of Gazprom, an offroader. Ivan Cherezov won the men's race. Being the fifth to start he managed to leave all his rivals including the sprint's leader the Norwegian Emil Hegle Svendsen behind.
       Ufa sportsmen did not make vivid breakthroughs in the pursuit. Sergey Kugubaev was the 11th to start, overshot a lot and finished eleventh. The best Ufa biathlonist Maxim Tchoudov who managed to rise from the 26th to 21st place passed him easily.
       Here is what the chief coach of the Bashkir men's team Victor Nikitin told BASHvest about the performance of his charges.
       "I believe that the 11th place Kugubaev took in the sprint is success, because he competed with the strongest sportsmen. In the pursuit, his shooting did him a bad turn."
       "You were sure that Svendsen will let nobody win and have the offroader, but Tchoudov's friend and roommate Ivan Cherezov managed to win."
       "It can't be helped as it is biathlon. That day was very windy, and not everyone was able to demonstrate good shooting."
       Sergey Kugubaev also shared his impressions with our newspaper:
       "Kamchatka is very beautiful most with its nature. The sea, bays, volcanoes, geysers. It is very interesting to look at all these from the plane. One should visit this place."
       "Are you satisfied with the performance?"
       "The 11th place is quite a good result. The only thing I regret about is that we were unlucky to have bad weather at Kamchatka and had to stay for a whole day in the hotel of Novosibirsk airport. So, we had to start right after we arrived. If only I had had one more training I would have felt better."
       "What if you had not missed the mark?"
       "I would have been the fourth or the third."
       "That's cool! But you also said that you lacked speed in the sprint..."
       "The thing was that I was good at shooting but bad at skiing in the sprint. And the opposite situation was in the pursuit. I skied perfectly. But I missed the mark so many times as I did never before."
       "And how many times?"
       "I am ashamed to say, but I missed 11 out of 20 shots! 4+2+3+2...
       "What was the reason?"
       "One should participate himself to understand. The wind was gusty. Some were lucky to get into the calm, and others had to face the strong wind.
       "Tchoudov probably joked when leaving you behind, didn't he?"
       "I did not see him passing me. I was skiing my penalty laps."
       "You said your speed was all right in the pursuit."
       "Yes, after all these 11 penalty laps, in the final section I left two French Olympic champions behind - Vincent Defrasne who won the gold medal in Turin and Vincent Jay, the Vancouver champion. It was prestigious to outrun such eminent people. Besides, both of them are rather fast."
       "Did you bring red caviar?"
       "Yes, I brought badges and caviar."
       "Is it fresh and cheap there?"
       "There will be fresh caviar only in May. And it costs one thousand roubles per kilogram. As far as I know, it is 1300 roubles in Ufa."
       "And what is the point in bringing it if the difference comes to 300 roubles?"
       "There is plenty of caviar there. You can go over the market and taste it. In the end, you chose the caviar that you liked most."
       "Do you plan to compete on the World Cups with the "stars" you already performed with?"
       "No, I don't. I need to prepare seriously. One should not rush to the top level being only half-prepared. I will better train and only then start..."
       Photo is taken from the website www. bashsport. ru.