Last month he stated that he was tired of just training, and all wanted to do is race. He seemed relaxed, but still hungry to race. I wonder how he and the coaches would have reacted had he made the sprint final and gotten a medal in that event. Probably guaranteed himself a spot in the team sprint. IMO he should have raced the skiathlon. I don’t know what his chances were in that race, but it couldn’t have been lower than say Maltsev’s, and Maltsev finished 9th, and looked ok. You would pick Ustiugov over Maltsev 10/10 times in equal condition. Of all the Russians, he beat everyone but Bolshunov and Chervotkin in Ruka, on a hard track on not really the fastest conditions, it was cold and hardly fast. I think he was the highest ranked Russian on the overall WC before the TDS. Did he really have back problems? It cannot be form, because he looked good today, even with a big advantage to work with. He also looked ok in the sprint, just missing out on the final.
I do think that for some time now Cramer has been given the short end of the stick, even when his group has had better results than any other training group. Perevozhikov’s skiers haven’t done much in Beijing. Semikov 9th and Yakimushkin 13th in the 15km. What exactly have they done at the WC? Yakimushkin also killed their chances at the Oberstdorf relay last year and he was sick in January. I guess Ustiugov gets two races and so does Yakimushkin. Everyone will ger at least two starts, except Semikov who wasn’t good enough in the 15km to get a place in the relay. Välbe is far more lenient with Perevozchikov than Cramer, and I am not even going to mention Borodavko. I’ve read that Ustiugov said that he would never train in Borodavko’s group. I don’t know if the reason for the criticism towards the Cramer group is because he’s a foreigner or she simply has more bias toward the other two because they’ve been there longer. In any case Cramer’s contract ends at the end of the season, so perhaps he will say goodbye no matter what results his group produces. I would actually move Stepanova to Cramer’s group because personality wise she would fit much more with the generally relaxed style of Kramer and his athletes than Borodavko and his athletes. I think it would be wrong if they don’t extend Markus’s contract for at least one more season. Next year it’s the World Championships. How will they mix the groups if he leaves? Who goes to what group? Perhaps Turyshev takes over? He’s been assisting Cramer since he retired. He seems like a logical replacement.