Biathlon: Les Bleus placed halfway through the race
Late on Saturday afternoon, the first stage of the World Team Challenge in Gelsenkirchen (Germany) took place in the Schalke 04 football stadium. In the beautiful atmosphere of the Biathlon auf Schalke, this mass-start, essentially used to determine the starting order of the pursuit (due to start at 7.27pm), came down to a duel between France and Norway.
As Fabien Claude had predicted in our columns a few hours ago, he and Julia Simon had to battle it out against Karoline Knotten and Sturla Holm Lægreid. Although Les Bleus initially took the lead, the Scandinavians came back for a while… before taking advantage of three mistakes made by the Vosgien on the eighth and final shot to win.
In the end, with a magnificent 37/40, the Norwegians won this first round of the World Team Challenge with a 37 sec 2 margin over France (33/40). Ukraine with Yuliia Dzhima and Dmytro Pidruchnyi (37/40) followed on the podium. Between them are the German pairs Anna Weidel/Justus Strelow (34/40) and Franziska Preuss/Philipp Nawrath (36/40), followed by Sweden’s Anna Magnusson/Jesper Nelin (32/40).
Finally, Slovenia with Polona Klemencic and Jakov Fak (34/40), Latvia with Baiba Bendika and Andrejs Rastorgujevs (32/20), Belgium with Lotte Lie and Florent Claude (33/40) and the Czech Republic with Jessica Jislova and Michal Krcmar (30/40) rounded off the top three.
For the pursuit at 19:27, it should be noted that the gaps are predetermined, with the second-placed rider starting 5 seconds behind the leader, the third at 10, the fourth at 15, the fifth at 20, and so on.
Full results
- Julia Simon and Fabien Claude in search of an unprecedented treble: the full programme of the World Team Challenge 2024 scheduled for Saturday 28 December
- “The aim is to do the historic treble”: Fabien Claude’s ambitions ahead of the World Team Challenge in Gelsenkirchen
- World Team Challenge 2024: the complete and official start list
- Entries, stakes, venue, format, route, prize money: all the information you need to know before the World Team Challenge 2024, where Julia Simon and Fabien Claude will represent France.
- World Team Challenge 2024: all Julia Simon and Fabien Claude’s opponents
- World Team Challenge: Julia Simon and Fabien Claude look back on their first two wins at the Biathlon auf Schalke in Gelsenkirchen
- Biathlon auf Schalke: Norway’s Guro Femsteinevik and Sivert Gerhardsen win the Talent Team Challenge
- No French juniors lining up for the Biathlon Talent Team Challenge auf Schalke 2024: the reasons
