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Justine Braisaz Bouchet finds her smile again
After two disappointing first stages of the World Cup, with a 6th place as the best result, the Olympic champion Justine Braisaz Bouchet, taking advantage of her fabulous skiing speed, put the church back in the middle of the village.
Obviously, when you have such qualities as a cross-country skier, on a demanding track, this allows you to open the doors to happiness wide, provided you deliver a good shot.
Despite the pressure and expectations of thousands of Habs fans, Justine Braisaz Bouchet, unlike some of her teammates, will manage her two passages against the targets very well with only one error.
Then, the Saisies rocket gives everything on the track, and it will be necessary, to achieve its 12th World Cup success, the first this winter, while positioning itself for a general classification still dominated by an enormous Franziska Preuss.
Once again perfect, not to say monstrous, in shooting, the German, with her 10/10, will give Braisaz Bouchet chills and finally finish second just 1.4sec from the win.
We talked about the Justine rocket, but today the public of Grand Bornand was able to appreciate the Slovenian Anamarija Lampic missile. A former high-level cross-country skier, Lampic, despite two penalty laps, managed an incredible skiing time.
She leaves Braisaz Bouchet almost 20sec behind on the track, but with two penalty laps, it was impossible to do better than her superb 3rd place at 13sec. Anamarija Lampic celebrating her first career podium at the same time.
The Slovenian will also shut some mouths who said, just last week, that biathlon was not for her.
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Germans in form
Since the start of this season, we have noted a great rise in power from this German team, led by Franziska Preuss.
In Kontiolahti we were able to appreciate the young Julia Tannheimer and today it is a young person, Selina Grotian, 20 years old, who takes a huge 5th place despite a shooting error. Vanessa Voigt is not to be outdone with her 6th place.
We also note the totally unexpected result of the Ukrainian Yulia Dzhyma, 4th with her 10/10, even though no one saw her reaching this level anymore.
Ranked 9th, the 23-year-old Italian, Hanna Auchentaller, at 23, signs her best career result.
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Lou Jeanmonnot cracked.
Justine Braisaz Bouchet will remain the queen of this beautiful day but as for her teammates it's a bit of a grimace, especially for Lou Jeanmonnot.
For the first time in ages, the Doubiste will miss her last three balls in the standing shot. A real bolt from the blue that surprised everyone and especially herself.
Demobilized, Lou Jeanmonnot will finish only 35th at 1min27 while enormously complicating her chances of doing something in pursuit, and above all by losing a lot of points overall.
Julia Simon, two faults, showed her best on the track and finished 7th at 37sec, while remaining in the match for Saturday. Jeanne Richard, the metronome, finished 12th to 47th with only one error.
Océane Michelon and Sophie Chauveau, three penalty laps, finished 34th and 42nd, far from their hopes.
Let's finish with the new breakdown of Elvira Oeberg, four shooting errors, and ranked only 32nd at 1min23 and the catastrophic result of Lisa Theresa Hauser, 75th and eliminated from the pursuit.
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Many absent
Lisa Vittozzi, victorious in the World Cup last season, Ingrid Tandrevold, Hanna Oeberg, Marketa Davidova, all capable of winning, are absent from this stage, as are the teams from Russia and Belarus.
We are therefore not far from 50% of an absence of 50% from the top 10 or top 15 in the world, that's a lot.
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The complete ranking HERE
World Cup rankings HERE
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