Frenchman Quentin Fillon Maillet won the sprint in Otepää (Estonia) on Thursday March 10, the penultimate stage of the Biathlon World Cup, and could win the big crystal globe for the first time in his career. from the next race, scheduled for Saturday.
Four events from the end of the season, Fillon Maillet now has a 225-point lead in the general classification over his runner-up, Emilien Jacquelin, only thirty-second.
The Frenchman dominated his race
It will therefore be enough for the double Olympic champion to finish at least twenty-third in the mass start on Saturday to be crowned and become the fourth Frenchman to finish the season in the position of world number 1, after Patrice Bailly-Salins (1994), Raphaël Poirée ( 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004) and Martin Fourcade (from 2012 to 2018).
Author of the sprint-pursuit double last week in Kontiolahti (Finland) just after the Beijing Olympics, Fillon Maillet continued his momentum by dominating the race with a very good ten out of ten shooting, signing his eighth victory of the winter in the World Cup. The Frenchman (29) was 7.2 seconds ahead of Norwegian Sturla Lægreid and 11.1 seconds of German Benedikt Doll.