After participating in the Finlandia Veikkaus Cup
in Roveniemi together with the nations of Finland,
Poland, Belarus and Estonia, the Russian team has
set its focus on the World Cup kickoff in Kuusamo.
Head coach Dmitry Dubrovskiy summed up his conclusions
after the race and also named the Russian starters
for the Ruka Nordic Opening.
"The most positive result is Niaz Nabeev's
fifth place in the international competition in
Rovamiemi", Dubrovskiy analysed. "His
gap to the winner was acceptable. It was a good
result for Niaz because he has beaten athletes from
Poland and Estonia who ranked before him in the
Summer Grand Prix.
This positive outcome was achieved under not too
easy circumstances, as the team was only able to
arrive the night before the competition, and did
not have the chance to make some snow jumps somewhere
else before. "We jumped for the first time
on snow and the boys only had very few jumps to
get used to this and the conditions which also were
not easy. For us, this was also a lesson to avoid
situations like that in the future. But I would
expressly like to thank the organisers who did everything
they could to support us, even giving is the chance
to make an extra jump in the morning."
Despite the difficult situation, his athletes managed
well, Dubrovskiy continued. His team leader, Evgeniy
Klimov, couldn't start due to a problem with his
equipment which couldn't be resolved resolved so
far. "But this success was important for Niaz
and it also pushed Evgeniy who had won every test
competition so far. Usually, Ernest Yahin is also
on the same level as Nabeev."
For the first two weekends of the World Cup in Kuusamo
and Lillehammer, Dubrovskiy will bring Evgeniy Klimov,
Niaz Nabeev, Damir Khinstertdinov and Ernest Yahin
as the jumping level of Ivan Panin and Denis Isaikin
is too low to have any hope of surviving the qualification
as of now. Their task set by their coach is to reach
the Top 30 in the individual competitions. "I
believe it is viable", he concludes.
