Biathlon: Paula Botet wins over Chloé Chevalier and Camille Bened in the first sprint of the Bessans selections
A few minutes after the boys’ brilliant victory by Gaëtan Paturel from Haut-Savoie , it was the women’s team who took part in their first sprint of the FFS biathlon trials in Bessans (Savoie) on Thursday morning.
Over the 7.5 kilometre distance, victory was decided between the members of the French B team. Just when you thought that pre-qualifier Chloé Chevalier, with her 10/10, was heading for a magnificent victory, Bressaude’s Paula Botet (9/10) went into overdrive on the final lap to take over 20 seconds off her team-mate.
In the end, therefore, it was the Vosgienne who won by a margin of 2 sec 1 over the Dauphinoise. Another pre-qualifier, Camille Bened (9/10), rounded off the podium at 16.0 seconds, followed by Fany Bertrand (10/10) and Voldiya Galmace-Paulin (9/10), who, like the day’s winner, did well to qualify for the IBU Cup.
Some have already played their joker
Léonie Jeannier (8/10), Violette Bony (9/10), Camille Coupé (8/10), Lou-Anne Dupont Ballet-Baz (9/10) and Amandine Mengin (8/10) all made the top 10. Further back are Lisa Siberchicot (8/10), eleventh, Eva Laine (7/10), twelfth, Noémie Remonnay (7/10), thirteenth, Coralie Langel (8/10), fourteenth, and Célia Henaff (7/10), sixteenth.
The day’s disappointments now have their backs against the wall in these Bessan selections: they have effectively used their joker and will have to shine this weekend in the second sprint and the mass-start if they hope to qualify for the IBU Cup.
Full results
- Bessans: Gaëtan Paturel wins the first selection sprint ahead of Antonin Guigonnat and Théo Guiraud-Poillot
- Sélections de Bessans: the start list for the first sprint
- IBU Cup: the full programme of selections in Bessans on 14, 16 and 17 November
- Three places up for grabs for the women and up to five for the men: Stéphane Bouthiaux explains what’s at stake and all the details of the IBU Cup selections in Bessans.
- “Doing specific work at race pace”: the French women’s team launches its final training camp of the preparation period on the snow at Bessans on Friday.
- Julia Simon, Lou Jeanmonnot, Jeanne Richard, Justine Braisaz-Bouchet, Gilonne Guigonnat, Sophie Chauveau and Océane Michelon training on the snow at Bessans: photo album
- “We already made this choice last year”: why the French women’s team decided to finish their preparations in Bessans and not in Sjusjøen with the boys.
- The names of the six French players pre-qualified for the start of the 2024/2025 IBU Cup
- The full schedule for the arrival of the French team groups at the Bessans snow camp
