Smolsky took second place in the race of the fourth stage of the Russian Biathlon Cup

Instead of the standard 12.5 km for the pursuit, the men ran 7.5 km — the organizers shortened the distance due to the abnormally warm weather for January, which prevented the track from being fully prepared. Due to the reduction of the distance by five kilometers, the starting gaps between the riders were also reduced - Dmitry Lazovsky won the sprint the day before with an advantage of 24 seconds, and today it was only 12 seconds.

After half of the race, Lazovsky retained the first place, but the Belarusian made three mistakes at the stand and went beyond the top three. Anton Smolsky returned to the leading role in the national team - the Beijing Olympic medalist made a mistake only once on four firing lines, thanks to which he rose from the 15th starting position to the second at the finish.