French biathletes Anaïs Chevalier-Bouchet, Julia Simon, Emilien Jacquelin and Quentin Fillon Maillet won the silver medal in the mixed relay at the Beijing Olympics on Saturday at the windy site of Zhangjiakou, behind the Norwegians and ahead of the Russians.
Olympic champions in the mixed relay four years ago in Pyeongchang (South Korea) in a totally different composition, the French biathletes, in silver this time, bring the first medal of the Olympic Games-2022 to the tricolor delegation. Biathlon, the second largest supplier of medals at the Winter Games for France, will be content with money to put its Olympic fortnight into orbit. French biathletes can make a real raid, with a highly anticipated match, both for men and women, with Norway, the other dominant nation in the discipline.
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On Saturday to launch hostilities, Anaïs Chevalier-Bouchet experienced major problems on the launch pad, in very strong wind conditions. She managed to limit the breakage on the prone shot, but standing up, she did not manage to hit the five targets despite her three “pickaxes” (or refills authorized in relay), which forced her to take a turn on the penalty ring.
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Holy Norway
Julia Simon, almost perfect on the shot (two “pickaxes”), while the other nations were struggling, and on skis, completely revived the Blues passing the baton to Emilien Jacquelin in the lead. After eight cleared targets, the world No.2 broke down to go for two penalty laps.
Quentin Fillon Maillet was in the fight until the end with the Norwegian Johannes Boe and the Russian Eduard Latypov. It was finally Boe, who had been in contact for two days and only authorized to leave his room to train and take part in competitions, who settled the final sprint with great beauty, Fillon Maillet getting the better of Latypov.
After a day without races on Sunday, the biathletes have an appointment again on Monday and Tuesday with the freezing cold of Zhangjiakou for the individual races: first the women (15 km) then the men (20 km).
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