At the European championship in Raubichi Elena Kruchinkina won the gold medal. The most popular question that journalists addressed to her and Sister Irina after the finish was the following: “Don’t you regret that a year ago you changed Russia to Belarus?” The biathletes answered in one voice that the transition had fully justified itself, while the Belarusian flag had already become their native. The material of SPORT.TUT.BY contains the story of the lovely twins of the world biathlon (and a lot of pictures of sisters themselves)
Elena and Irina Kruchinkina were born in Mordovia. The oldest of the twins is Lena. According to her sister, she is more combatful and assertive.
Until 2018, the Kruchinkins run for the team of the Republic of Mordovia. But they never managed to break through to be a part of the Russian national team.
After Daria Domracheva and Nadezhda Scardino left the Belarusian national team in the summer of 2018, the Belarusian Biathlon Federation offered 23-year-old Russians to join our team.They did not get into of the Russian national team, and there was a real chance for them to perform at the World Cup and World Championships,” the head of the Russian Biathlon Union Vladimir Drachev said. – As a result, the girls opened up. They imposed competition on the Russians, even defeated our athletes in some starts.
I think we did the right thing not to hinder their transition. Kruchinkins found their place, work and are happy with their sports life. Otherwise, we could have ended our careers at all.
At the European Championship in 2020, Elena Kruchinkina showed the best result in her career, passing the pursuit race with four zeros and winning gold.
The last meters of the distance the champion passed with the Belarusian flag in her hands.Belarus has already become a native country. It is very valuable that my sister and I were invited to play for this country. We are happy that our dreams come true here and we are useful to Belarus,” said the European champion.
At the World Cup, her best result in personal races is 16th place in the sprint. By the way, she showed it only a month and a half ago at the stage in Ruhpolding.Finally, there was confidence that I can shoot all four goals to zero. And this is the most important thing – psychologically realize that you can do it, – shared feelings Elena.
Irina has a weak current season – she ran only six personal races in the World Cup (best place – 43rd in pursuit of Anne).This season I will write down in my worst, – said the biathlete. – No strength to fight, it feels terrible. Linked to the fact that I did not have enough speed work, [coaches] gave little run start – only nine in a season. Although athletes usually run so many races in two stages.
At the same time, last season 2018/2019 Irina Kruchinkina even had a personal podium at the IBU Cup – silver in sprint.I hope we’ll talk to the coaches and fix the situation next year,” the athlete concluded.
Irina supports her sister and is sure that the transition to Belarus has justified herself.
Here we are given an opportunity to realize ourselves at international competitions. We can run and fight with the leaders. The main thing is to get close to the races and cope with the shooting.
