The first French victory of the season is for Julia Simon.
The tricolor biathlete won in the pursuit of Kontiolahti in front of the Italian Dorothea Wierer and the Swede Hanna Öberg, on the occasion of the first stage of the World Cup.
At 26, she scored her first 20/20 in shooting.
This performance allowed her to catch up, over the four rounds of shooting, with the fifteen competitors who left before her.
Victory for Julia Simon!!
🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷
20/20, his first in his career, and the first French victory of the season on a perfectly conducted chase.
#theBIATHLON team pic.twitter.com/UnF9PkoUBf
— the chain L'Équipe (@lachainelequipe) December 4, 2022
Julia Simon had finished in sixteenth place in the sprint the day before.
After the first pass on the launch pad, she had already made up 33 of her 46 seconds behind the race leader.
Fifth after the first prone shot, she came out on top after the third pass behind the rifle.
Simon then pointed behind the Italian Lisa Vittozzi after the fourth and last pass in the shooting zone.
She therefore made the difference on skis to finally win.
The French indeed achieved the third best race time.
Only the Öberg sisters were more lively than the biathlete from Albertville, with a ski time of 26 minutes and 18 seconds, on the Finnish snow.
It's a double victory for Norway in the Men Pursuit!
💥 First individual podium of the season for Jacquelin 💪
🥇🇳🇴 Johannes T. Boe
🥈🇳🇴 Sturla H. Laegreid
🥉🇫🇷 Emilien Jacquelin #kon22 |
#biathlon pic.twitter.com/B4D3h1ciYa
— BMW IBU World Cup Biathlon (@IBU_WC) December 4, 2022
For his part, Emilien Jacquelin offered himself a first podium, also during the pursuit.
The Habs were impeccable on the first three shots to play the leading roles.
But after a first standing shot in submachine gun mode at 5 out of 5, he got stuck on the last pass with two fatal faults to play for the win.
Fortunately for him, competition from Sebastian Samuelsson (Sweden) and another Roman Rees (Germany) also stuck.
Jacquelin finally finished behind the two leading Norwegians, namely Johannes Boe, winner, and Sturla Laegreid, second.
Note that, in addition to this first French podium of the season, Fabien Claude (2 faults) took 7th place while Quentin Fillon Maillet (3 faults) finished in 10th position.
