The 21st All-Russian Summer Biathlon Competitions for the prize of Dmitry Malyshko took place in Sosnovy Bor on October 5-7.

Closer to stars

After more than 20 years, Vladimir Zhitenev thinks back how the relationship with the current section of biathlon SC Malakhit in Sosnovy Bor, which in 1999 was a children's and youth sports school at LAES, began.  In difficult times, almost all coaches left, except Yuri Parfenov, who was the coach of the future Olympic champion Dmitry Malyshko.
“Yury Vasilyevich was regularly engaged with children, brought up athletes, and we always tried to help him and support him.  In 1999, we decided to introduce children to some of the famous athletes, and asked to visit the multiple world champion in biathlon Vladimir Drachev.  We have known him since the army, and Volodya readily agreed. At that time there were very few competitions, and children had to be kept engaged in the sport. That's why we agreed with Vladimir and organized the first competitions calling them “for the Vladimir Drachev Prize”. We found sponsors, chipped in together and bought prizes. In 2014, the athlete handed the baton to Sochi Olympic Games champion Dmitry Malyshko. Since 2015, competitions for the prize of Dmitry Malyshko have been held”, says Vladimir Zhitenev.
Other famous athletes regularly come to Sosnovy Bor to participate in competitions. This year they were visited for the third time by the Russian biathlon champions Anton Shipulin, Olympic champions Anna Bogaliy, Anatoly Alabyev, Dmitry Vasilyev and Yuri Kashkarov. Last year they were visited by a multiple world champion in biathlon Ivan Cherezov who ended his career.

The competition does not stand still

The competition for the prize of Dmitry Malyshko develops year after year. Their main participants are children, whose number is steadily increasing. This became especially noticeable after the Olympic Games in Sochi in 2014 and the glorious victories of our biathlonists. Younger generation of athletes came in a massive way to the Malakhit section of
St. Petersburg and Leningrad region.
This year's sports tournament was the first stage of the Anna Bogaliy Cup – SKIMiR,  an open all-Russian competition among young biathlonists, which will be held in other four cities - Murmansk, Magnitogorsk, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and Novosibirsk. As a result, the number participants in Sosnovy Bor has increased and the quality of the competition has grown.

“Many strong and ambitious athletes from different regions, came to gain points in the Anna Bogaliy Cup. They were serious about struggling for prizes. The goals of our competitions fixed in their Regulation are popularization of the sport and gaining competitive experience from participants. Obviously, we are moving in the right direction. At the same time the workload has increased for us as organizers  - imbalance between resources and the number of organizational issues that have to be solved is a  stumbling block," continues Vladimir Zhitenev.

Support by colleagues

Preparations for the competitions take place long before they start, and interaction with sponsors is carried out throughout the year. The main stage of this work begins in May – when the current program of competitions is drawn up, Policy and Regulations are written, members of the judging panel are determined, participation of sponsors is confirmed. In addition, facilities and resources for the event, such as uniforms, medals are prepared. -

“The competition lasts three days, and up to the last day I had a very high workload and the feeling that we do not have time anywhere here and there. And only on the final day we managed to get satisfaction from the work done and from the results. Smiles of children and the sight of them running around Dima and Anton are worth a lot!   On the eve of the competition there were many problems, including financial issues. But at the last moment everything went well - somewhere we were supported by sponsors and some costs were lower than expected.  I want to express my appreciation and gratitude to all colleagues from Streamer who helped us. This is very supportive and inspiring for us as pioneering organizers”, concludes Steamer Director for innovation and technical development.