Biathlon | The big disappointment of the French at home

That’s it, here we are. The dreaded moment of the Biathlon World Cup round in Grand-Bornand. The slightest tricolor betrayal will be increased tenfold, because it is perpetrated on our lands. But fortunately, the Blues decided to be lenient with us for their first race.

French biathlon has bright days ahead of it

Carried by a delirious crowd, the French are galvanized. And Éric Perrot uses this enthusiasm to bring down the ten targets behind the rifle. Knowing that a 10/10 in sprint very often allows you to fight for victory. But what better place than Grand-Bornand to see our Blues get relegated on skis? Despite his flawless shooting, Perrot finished 6th at the finish. Finally, before Philipp Nawrath finished and ejected him from the flower ceremony by 1 tenth of a second. Infuriating you might say. But helped by his 22nd skiing time, one minute slower than his competitors, Perrot managed to finish 7th despite his 10/10. Solid.

Émilien Jacquelin is not faced with the same problems as Perrot, for the simple reason that he turns twice in the penalty ring, 150m long. The Frenchman, who had the best skiing time last week, finished this time in 8th. The timing could not be more surgical in front of the French public. But this 300m reduction only made him finish “only” 3 seconds behind Perrot. This shows Perrot’s feat on skis today.

We then say to ourselves that the threat will come from elsewhere today, and Quentin Fillon-Maillet’s 9/9 is absolutely nothing reassuring. Except that QFM forgets that a perfect score is achieved on ten shots. The tenth ball is out, we can breathe a huge sigh of relief. Unlike the French supporters, air-conditioned for good this time. You will have understood, the French applied strict social distancing with victory today. And this went to the Norwegian Martin Uldal, victorious by just a second ahead of Johannes Boe. We pity the FNL.