Biathlon: second IBU Cup victory for Camille Bened, brilliant individual winner
Since the launch of the 2024/2025 IBU Biathlon Cup last week, France’s biathletes have been on fire. During the first stage inIdre Fjäll (Sweden), three of them reached the podium: Camille Bened, Paula Botet, winner of one of the two sprints, and Chloé Chevalier. This Wednesday morning, for the individual event in Geilo (Norway), they were all expected.
And it was the Chablais native from Châtel (Haute-Savoie) who produced THE perfect race. With one of the only 20/20 times of the race, Camille Bened, despite an average ski time of almost 2 minutes behind the best, won after less than 45 minutes of effort. This was her second IBU Cup success after the sprint in Brezno-Osrblie (Slovakia) on 14 January 2022, and she now leads the overall standings.
In fact, victory could have eluded her at the end of the race, as Norway’s Marit Oeygard, who had come from the Norwegian Cup, was ahead of her after three shots. She was also a perfect markswoman, so was in contention for first place on her last stand… where she missed a target. Second at 42.2 seconds, the 25-year-old nonetheless claimed her first IBU Cup podium on the day of her very first start on the circuit.
Fany Bertrand also on the podium, Voldiya Galmace-Paulin with the flowers
In third place, proof of the immense density of the French women’s team, was Fany Bertrand. Also with 20/20, the biathlete from Méribel (Savoie) managed to hold off the comeback of Norway’s Siri Skar (19/20) in the last lap to take this fine podium place, 0 sec 8 behind her Scandinavian rival. It was the second IBU Cup podium for the Frenchwoman.
Behind her, Montblanc’s Voldiya Galmace-Paulin (18/20) continued her rapid progress by taking fifth place. With the seventh fastest time in cross-country skiing, she missed out on the top 3 by just one bullet, or less than 10 seconds. Ragnhild Femsteinevik (17/20) completed the flower ceremony.
Paula Botet (15/20), in twenty-fifth place, and Chloé Chevalier (14/20), in twenty-seventh place, missed out on the mats despite setting some excellent times on the cross-country track. Finally, Anaëlle Bondoux, who was due to start with bib 105, did not take the start of this individual event, while Slovakia’s Anastasiya Kuzmina (11/20) finished a very poor sixty-seventh.
Full results
IBU Cup general ranking
- Camille Bened after winning the individual at the IBU Cup in Geilo: “Huge satisfaction”.
- The full programme for the IBU Cup in Geilo, the second stage of the 2024/2025 B circuit
- Firsts for Martin Botet, Axel Garnier and Voldiya Galmace-Paulin: the full French team selection for the IBU Cups in Idre Fjäll and Geilo
- Geilo: Marit Oeygard and Mats Oeverby win IBU Cup
- Geilo replaces the Sjusjøen stage in the IBU Cup
