Biathlon: Eric Perrot angry after the Oslo-Holmenkollen sprint
On Friday, the men’s biathletes set off on the sprint of the biathlon world cup in Oslo-Holmenkollen (Norway) in spring-like conditions and increasingly mixed snow. A track that had become increasingly difficult to master, which didn’t help the many favourites who started at the end of the competition.
Indeed, since the start of the season, the famous “red group”, which includes the best athletes in the overall rankings, has been placed at the end of the list. It’s a decision that has long divided the caravan. In recent weeks, in Nove Mesto (Czech Republic) and Pokljuka (Slovenia), the IBU jury decided to reverse the starting order , placing the top athletes at the beginning of the race.
This was because the snow conditions did not favour the world’s best. This afternoon, despite the Norwegian heat, the organisers did not make that choice. It was a decision that caused quite a stir , particularly in the French clan.
“The last three training sessions showed that it was obvious that the snow was getting worse”.Eric Perrot on La Chaîne L’Équipe
Speaking to the cameras of La Chaîne L’Équipe, Savoyard Eric Perrot expressed his incomprehension at the decision to keep the basic starting list.
I’m still very upset by the jury’s choice before the race,” he complained. They have the option of putting the red group in front to avoid having less favourable conditions. This has been done over the last two weeks to allow those in the overall ranking to perform well. Today, they didn’t make that choice even though the last three training sessions showed that it was obvious that the snow was getting worse.
Thirteenth at the finish, the Peiserot fought to the end in snow at the end of the season where it remains difficult to express oneself: “I admit that I’m a bit angry with them. After all, I’m not on the jury and it wasn’t my decision. So I have to get used to it and I don’t yet have the necessary hindsight to know whether it was this aspect that really played a role today, bearing in mind that some of them started behind, like Sturla [Holm Lægreid, editor’s note] and Johannes [Thingnes Boe, editor’s note], and they had a great race. A big well done to them because I think it was a disadvantage”, he said.
“The conditions have changed enormously. Perhaps even more so than on the slopes over the last two weeks. The starting list had been revised to put the red group in a better position,” recalled his coach, Simon Fourcade. I find it a little hard to understand why the IBU didn’t do it today. We knew it could happen during the season and that’s a shame.
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