French biathletes Lou Jeanmonnot, Justine Braisaz-Bouchet, Sophie Chauveau and Julia Simon won the relay (4×6 km) in Oberhof (Germany) on Sunday, the conclusion of a perfect weekend for the Bleues who won all three races at program.
After the victory of Justine Braisaz-Bouchet in the sprint on Friday (and the third place of Sophie Chauveau) and the success of Julia Simon ahead of Braisaz-Bouchet in the pursuit, the Bleues won as teams ahead of Norway and Sweden.
This is the first relay victory for the French women’s biathlon team this season, the eighth in total this winter (out of a total of thirteen races), if we add the seven individual victories.
The first relay in Östersund (Sweden) for the opening of the season ended in 5th place for the French relay which reached the podium for the first time collectively in Hochfilzen (Austria) in third place. These first two races were won by Norway.
Sunday, in the heart of the Thuringian Forest massif, the fog lifted for the women’s relay at the end of the afternoon, on the track which hosted the 2023 World Championships. The French management decided to line up Sophie Chauveau, slightly modifying the relay chosen to run in Hochfilzen.
Lou Jeanmonnot launched the tricolor relay perfectly with a single pickaxe from his prone shot. She passed the baton to Justine Braisaz-Bouchet in 2nd position, part of a trio with Norway and Sweden which crushed the race.
“JBB” once again showed that she was the strongest at the moment on skis, passing the lead to Sophie Chauveau, despite a big scare with three picks on the standing shot, while avoiding the penalty round .
Chauveau also experienced some thrills with three consecutive fouls in the standing shot, but blanked all subsequent targets with three picks to avoid the penalty ring.
Julia Simon took over with a good twenty seconds lead over Norwegian Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold, who gave last year’s World Cup winner a hard time.
After a flawless performance in the prone shot, Simon drew three times on the same target in the standing shot and began the final round with only twelve seconds ahead of Tandrevold, which she managed to hold on to cross the line in head.
