St. Petersburg, Jan 20, Sergey Yaremenko. Biathlete Anton Babikov, who won the individual race at the Antholz World Cup, would be useful for the Russian team at the Beijing Olympics and could be a good replacement for quarantined Eduard Latypov, said two-time Olympic biathlon champion Dmitry Vasiliev. Babikov in Thursday took first place in the individual race at the seventh stage of the Biathlon World Cup, which takes place in Antholz. The Russian covered the distance in 49 minutes 46.8 seconds without any misses. Another Russian biathlete, Karim Khalili, took third place. Earlier it became known that Babikov was included in the list of substitutes for the Russian Olympic team. «Babikov was included in the list of substitutes for the Olympics, and he will be kept in mind in case something happens to one of the athletes. At the same time, we have now Latypov is questionable. I don’t know how his situation will be resolved. It’s not good when an athlete is separated from the team for so long. He was also extended the period (quarantine) for eight days — a disgrace! As I said, Babikov with his shooting would be very useful in Beijing «The victory at the World Cup stage is the best confirmation of his readiness. He is at the head of the list of substitutes,» Vasiliev said.
