Martin Fourcade can rest assured. Or not. On Saturday, he regretted that the men's biathlon was coming down to a duel between Norwegians and French. Good news, this was not the case on Sunday at Grand-Bornand during the mass start. Bad news, this last race of the calendar year offered a duel between… Norwegians. Worse, or better, it depends, it was even a family battle between the Boe siblings. Johannes, on the podium as usual, only finished third. Victory went to his older brother, Tarjei.
But Johannes raised his arms as if he had won by cutting the line, happier than if he had won himself. Because he is aware that his brother was going through a delicate period. “This month of December has not been fun“, admitted the winner of the day, coming back a little from nowhere. In need of confidence and results, the first problem being the consequence of the second, the eldest Boe suffered more than any other from the incredible density of the Norwegian team at the start of the season.
It's one of my greatest victories, for sure.
At Grand-Bornand, we did not see him in the sprint, for which he had not been selected, and therefore by definition in the pursuit. But on Sunday, he took a brilliant revenge with a 19 out of 20 which allowed him to win this Norwegian Championship. Apart from the German Danilo Riethmueller, who slotted in between the Boes in second place, we only saw red and blue, with five Norwegians in the first six places.
Tarjei Boe.
Credit: Getty Images
“We had very good skis today on this wet snow, that's for sure“, estimated Siegfried Mazet, the Norwegian shooting manager. “In Norway, snow and rain are a tradition and we have always had very effective equipment in these conditions.“, adds Johannes Boe. But in these conditions, it was his brother who pulled the chestnuts out of the fire.
“It's one of my greatest victories, for sure.“, assured Tarjei at the finish. The 14th of his career and the first since the Hochfilzen sprint last year. At 36 years old, it's quite a comeback. But it was a little quick to forget that , last season, he was the one who finished as his brother's runner-up in the general standings of the World Cup. You don't go from world number two to good for nothing like that.
Forget biathlon for a week
“Biathlon is complicated sometimes. When the sensations are not good when skiing, when the confidence disappears when shooting… It is a sport which becomes very laborious. But you have to hang on“, underlines the winner of the big crystal globe in… 2011. Some were starting to say that it was perhaps one year too many.”But it's not because he's at the end of his career that it's necessarily one year too many. It was a bad start to the season, yes, but it happens and we have to find solutions“, retorts Mazet.
If there is one who savors this victory, it is in any case Johannes. As soon as the line was crossed, he came to take his brother in his arms, before pointing at him to the audience, as if to say “He's my brother, and he's still here“. “To share the podium with Tarjei, and for him to win this race, is… fantastic. We love it!he told Eurosport. It's really great that things went well today for Tarjei.” “Johannes was happy for me, he earns enough as it is“, laughed the surprise hero of Sunday.
All the same, the end-of-year holidays look rather nice for the Boe family, who are leaving Grand-Bornand with good news in their suitcases. “We're flying home tonight, and tomorrow (Monday) morning, when we get up, we're going to play with the kids, smiled Johannes. We're going to do what everyone does at Christmas! Christmas stuff. We're going to rest, relax and forget about the biathlon for a week.” Biathlon is not likely to forget them. Neither will their opponents.
