Biathlon: best career performance for Oscar Lombardot
During the individual biathlon World Cup short race in Nove Mesto (Czech Republic), it wasn’t just Peiserot’s Eric Perrot and Villardien’s Emilien Jacquelin, who scored a one-two finish at the top of the rankings, who shone with the 2026 Olympics just two weeks away.
Fourth with a score of 19/20, Oscar Lombardot from Doubt initially put in his best career performance, doing much better than his tenth place in the pursuit held at the same venue last winter.
It’s just crazy,” he said afterwards to La Chaîne L’Equipe. It makes me think back to last year, when I was struggling to come back. To manage a fourth place here is incredible! I knew I could do it, I hung in there and that’s really pleasing.
A performance which, in the words of his shooting coach Jean-Pierre Amat, “confirms his very high shooting averages”.
First winter flower ceremony for Emilien Claude
Two places behind, in sixth place, was Vosgien Emilien Claude. After his back injury in the autumn and his Covid-19 in December, this was his best result of the winter.
This race came out of nowhere,” he admits. Last week, I thought I had a good sprint in Ruhpolding and I finished fiftieth. This time, I took two in the first shot and I had the impression that things weren’t going well on the skis, but I hung in there. I gave it my all. With 18/20, I thought I’d get the mass start, but not the flowers!
“What’s really great about his performance is that he tightened the bolts [after his unsuccessful dismount] to stay in the race”, said a delighted Jean-Pierre Amat.
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