Biathlon: silver for Célia Henaff and Léo Carlier in Altenberg
The mixed singles relay at the European Junior Biathlon Championships in Altenberg (Germany), contested early on Friday afternoon, put on a great show. The local duo of Linus Kesper and Charlotte Gallbronner and France’s Léo Carlier and Célia Henaff quickly broke away from the rest of the pack.
It was a bit like cat and dog because there wasn’t much of a gap,” the Beaufortaine, who finished the race, told Nordic Magazine. I didn’t ask myself any questions and my only aim was to do my race without looking at what was going on around me. So I approached my first three shots in the right way, staying present so as not to flinch.
But Célia Henaff had a meltdown in her final round on the mats, the eighth for the French team, when she spun around on the penalty ring as she faced the targets alone for the title.
She has no regrets
“I can’t say I panicked because I didn’t feel like I was shaking and losing control of my rifle like I had at the start of the season when I was standing up. It was just complicated to deal with the pressure of winning,” said the Savoyard, who was on the shooting range to hear the German public cheering on Charlotte Gallbronner‘s incoming shots.
“I realised that they were all in it together and that if I wanted Léo [Carlier] and I to win the gold medal, I had to get straight back on the German. I just kept on skiing until I caught up with her,” said Célia Henaff.
But she had no fuel left in the engine to fight it out on the final straight. I gave 100% of myself in that last lap right up to the kick-off,” she concludes. I have no regrets and it’s still a silver medal you can’t turn down.
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- “I threw myself into the unknown”: how, on the day of his first international start, Antonin Delsol won a silver medal in the individual event at the European Junior Championships.
- Altenberg: Bulgaria’s Valentina Dimitrova wins gold in the individual event at the European junior championships, Anaëlle Bondoux fourth
- European Junior Championships in Altenberg: Camille Grataloup-Manissolle, Antonin Delsol, Lola Bugeaud and Louise Roguet win silver medals in the mixed relay
- Altenberg Junior Cup: Léo Carlier and Célia Henaff runners-up in the European junior mixed singles relay
