Biathlon : Antonin Delsol again European junior individual runner-up
At this week’s Junior Biathlon Cup in Altenberg (Germany), the backdrop to the European Junior Championships, two Frenchmen were taking their first steps on the international stage: Coralie Perrin and Antonin Delsol from Savoie. While Coralie Perrin was far from the top of the field in the opening individual event on Wednesday, the almost 20-year-old from Féclaz shone brightly.
Second in the competition, Antonin Delsol won a magnificent silver medal on the day of his first Junior Cup start.
I’m very happy with this race,” he told Nordic Magazine. I thought it was possible, but there was still a step to take to achieve it. I went into this individual race in a fairly calm frame of mind. As I’d never competed internationally before, I don’t know anyone and I don’t have any points of reference. The only one I had, in the end, was myself and I rode a race like myself.
Two missed shots in the first round
Starting at the top of the start list – with number 21 out of 135 – Antonin Delsol got off to a poor start , dropping two shots on his first run. ” I was able to pull myself together to get 15/15 behind on the other three shots,” he says.
So it was with 18/20 that the biathlete from La Féclaz (Savoie) finished his race, taking silver behind Poland’s Grzegorz Galica and ahead of Slovakia’sArtur Iskhakov. I don’t know if I thought I was capable of doing that, but I didn’t feel incapable,” he admits. What made the day such a success was that I was in a fairly serene frame of mind. I threw myself into the unknown. In the past, I’ve always just missed out on selection and I told myself it was because I wasn’t ready.
“It’s the race behind it that I’m really proud of”.Antonin Delsol at Nordic Magazine
Having (finally) made his selection in January following the French Cups in Prémanon (Jura) and Les Contamines-Montjoie (Haute-Savoie), Antonin Delsol was well and truly ready.
This medal doesn’t mean that much,” says the Savoyard. It’s the race behind it that I’m really proud of. It’s a race in which 90% of the shots were successful. For the rest of the week, I’m going to continue to focus on my race to produce a good biathlon without necessarily thinking about the result.
- Junior Cup: the full programme for the 2025 European Junior Championships in Altenberg
- “I’m really motivated”: this week in Altenberg, Féclazienne Coralie Perrin discovers the Junior Cup
- Junior Cup in Altenberg: Antonin Delsol individual European junior vice-champion, Camille Grataloup-Manissolle fourth, one tenth away from bronze
- Altenberg: Bulgaria’s Valentina Dimitrova takes gold in the individual event at the European junior championships, Anaëlle Bondoux fourth
