Biathlon: Fabien Claude wants to return to the top
1,453– the number of days separating Fabien Claude from his third and final podium finish on the biathlon World Cup circuit on Tuesday morning. Since then, the man from Bassur has become an Olympic medallist and world champion in the relay in 2022 and 2023, but has never again experienced the thrill of solo summits.
The 29-year-old biathlete has finished fourth four times in recent seasons, most notably at Le Grand-Bornand (Haute-Savoie), but has also failed to break into the World Cup top 10 on a regular basis.
“I hope that this year I’ll find the right recipe to get through the season and, why not, pick up a good overall ranking,” he told Nordic Magazine last Sunday following his relay victory in Kontiolahti (Finland).
Ideal preparation, like his first race of the winter
In this race, the Vosges native scored an impeccable 10/10 on the shooting range, his first career finish in this speciality.
“My confidence is there, I’m working well in training and I’m making progress every year,bsays Fabien Claude. The preparation went very well and the intensities of the last two or three months have been very good, with a lot of 100% shooting. So I’m happy to do it right from the first race. If I could do it again in the individual short, that would be even better.”
Born inEpinal (Vosges) this winter, the player wants to finally break through his glass ceiling. “I’m here to go for big performances. It’s time for me to step up to the plate and become the biathlete I was a few years ago,” he says.
This biathlete is the one who took two podium finishes in Kontiolahti and Hochfilzen (Austria) at the start of the 2020/2021 season. That was 4 years and 1,453 days ago.
- Kontiolahti: French relay triumphs for Fabien Claude, Quentin Fillon-Maillet, Eric Perrot and Emilien Jacquelin
- After winning the Kontiolahti relay, Fabien Claude wants more: “Now we have to go out and put in the individual performances that the whole team is waiting for”.
- Fabien Claude and his partner launch an online fund to help flood victims in the Valence region
- “I think this season will help me grow”: despite a winter far from his expectations and without a podium finish since December 2020, Fabien Claude remains motivated.
