No Frenchman made it to the podium in the first race of the Biathlon World Cup season, an individual 20 km in Kontiolahti (Finland) on Tuesday, Quentin Fillon Maillet ranking only fifteenth.
The best blue biathlete was Fabien Claude, finally ninth with an 18 out of 20 shooting, just over two minutes behind the winner, Sweden’s Martin Ponsiluoma. Fillon Maillet, five-time Olympic medalist in Beijing and winner of the big crystal globe last winter, also made two mistakes but was slower on skis (+2:42.) Ponsiluoma, author of a single error on the shooting, won in 49 min 36 sec 5/10th ahead of the Swiss Niklas Hartweig and the German David Zobel, who both signed a 20/20.
Disappointment also for Johannes Boe, who finished only twelfth, almost two and a half minutes behind: even very fast, the Norwegian three times winner of the big crystal globe could not completely compensate for his inaccuracy on the track behind the rifle, with four faults.
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