2023-11-25 15:13:27
And Julia Simon is back from the dead. On Saturday, the French team made an exceptional comeback to finally get on the podium in the first race of this season, the single mixed relay in Ostersund (Sweden) won by Sweden. Relegated to more than a minute 15 during Fabien Claude’s last handover, the Frenchwoman, despite a mistake on her last shot, snatched third place at the cost of a final fantastic lap on the skis.
From the start of the race, the Blues found themselves in difficulty when Fabien Claude, first torchbearer in this non-Olympic format, passed the first relay to Julia Simon in 9th position. But so far, nothing alarming given the insignificant delay of 17 seconds. A gap that the last winner of the big crystal globe did not struggle to fill.
If Fabien Claude generally had a complicated race on the shooting range, his compatriot was able to make up for the delay accumulated in each of his passages. However, before starting his final stint, Simon was in 20th position, 1′16″ behind the Swedish leaders. A hole !
A perfect prone shot allowed him to come back to 54 seconds from the lead and above all into the top 10 (7th). Despite a final mistake on the final standing shot, the French biathlete left in a group of 4 to compete for third place. But on skis, Julia Simon maintained no suspense to finally cross the line 48 seconds behind Sweden and 42 seconds behind Norway.
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