Biathlon: Eric Perrot wins like a boss
On Friday evening, after winning the Biathlon World Cup sprint in Kontiolahti (Finland), Emilien Jacquelin explained in our columns that this success should serve as an example to his compatriots in the French team. “They have to go back to the hotel and tell themselves that they can do it if I can. That will give everyone a boost,” said the Villardien.
Two days later, at the Finnish mass-start, we found a highly-motivated tricolour group, keen to shine in this first kings’ race of the season. First of all, it was veteran Antonin Guigonnat (16/20), after a 10/10 on the prone shots, who put himself forward, coming out third from the shooting range halfway through the race. He then cracked and finished nineteenth, just behind Fabien Claude (14/20), leaving the spotlight to Peiserot Eric Perrot (19/20).
The youngest member of the French group, the biathlete from Aime-la-Plagne (Savoie) was one step closer to the elite of his sport in this grouped start. In the lead after three shots, he tackled the last one with Sturla Holm Lægreid (18/20). Although Sturla Holm Lægreid missed a target, Eric Perrot took full advantage and went into the final round of cross-country skiing alone in the lead… with a margin of more than 20 seconds over his first runner-up.
Victory, the double and the yellow bib
After a tough final kilometre, Eric Perrot maintained his lead and won the Kontiolahti mass-start on the very spot where Martin Fourcade ended his immense career in March 2020.
But that wasn’t all for France, asQuentin Fillon-Maillet (17/20), who was bleeding on his skis, overtook Danielo Riethmueller (19/20), in fourth, and Sturla Holm Lægreid, in third, in the final pack to take second place. It was a fabulous double for Les Bleus.
As a further reward, Eric Perrot took the yellow leader’s bib in the overall classification , which he will wear next Friday in the sprint atHochfilzen (Austria). For the record, Emilien Jacquelin (15/20), who was so keen for his team-mates to follow in his footsteps, finished in fifteenth place.
Full results
Eric Perrot on the cover of Nordic Magazine: CLICK HERE TO BUY THIS ISSUE
- The full programme for the Kontiolahti World Cup, the first stage of the 2024/2025 season
- Corinne Niogret: my best memory of… Kontiolahti
- Top 3 nations cup target for France: the hunt for Olympic quotas for Milan/Cortina 2026, the other key issue of the 2024/2025 season
- World Cup overall leaders celebrated: this season, the IBU is introducing a yellow bib award ceremony
- After the opening relays, what is the programme for the second week of the Kontiolahti World Cup?
- Kontiolahti: where does Emilien Jacquelin’s “Night Night” celebration at the relay finish line come from?
- “I can’t wait to see how he performs”, “He’s progressed, he deserves it”: Emilien Claude’s return to the World Cup is a source of great joy to those close to him, Anna Gandler and Fabien Claude.
- “It’s time for me to come into my own and become the biathlete I was a few years ago”: Fabien Claude, the winter of affirmation at last?
- Kontiolahti: Endre Stroemsheim, at 20/20, beats Johannes Thingnes Boe in the individual short, Quentin Fillon-Maillet and Eric Perrot with the flowers
- Kontiolahti: for the first time in his career, Endre Stroemsheim will don the yellow World Cup leader’s bib
- “My best race ever”: Endre Stroemsheim and the Norwegians put everyone in agreement at Kontiolahti
- “With a full house, we could have been ahead…”: satisfaction, but also frustration for Quentin Fillon-Maillet and Eric Perrot, in the top 6 of the individual short in Kontiolahti.
- Ukraine’s Vitalii Mandzyn, sensation of the individual short with his fourth place: “I hope this is just the beginning”.
- “A dream come true”: ninth in the individual short in Kontiolahti, Thierry Langer scored his first World Cup top 10 finish
- “It’s the performances and results that count”: in Kontiolahti and Hochfilzen, the seven girls in the French team are fighting to take part in the Grand-Bornand World Cup.
- Lou Jeanmonnot is about to embark on the season of all things possible: “Playing the globe honestly, trying to keep a jersey and manage the pressure”.
- Kontiolahti: Julia Simon undergoes an MRI scan early this afternoon
- Kontiolahti: still uncertain about Julia Simon’s state of health on the eve of the individual short race
- Kontiolahti: despite injuring her left calf on the relay last Sunday, Julia Simon is taking part in the individual short race.
- Kontiolahti: on cloud nine with a 20/20, Lou Jeanmonnot dominates the individual short and gets her season off to an ideal start
- Kontiolahti: after wearing it for the first time in Hochfilzen in December 2023, Lou Jeanmonnot takes the yellow bib once again
- Kontiolahti: in Saturday’s sprint, Océane Michelon will become the first Frenchwoman to wear the blue number
- Lou Jeanmonnot’s satisfaction after her success in the Kontiolahti individual short: “I’m relieved to see that I’m not out of my depth”.
- “I didn’t feel any pain”: despite a modest 31st place in the Kontiolahti individual short, Julia Simon was reassuring about her left calf.
- “Beyond anything I could have imagined”: Ella Halvarsson, tears over her first World Cup podium in the individual short in Kontiolahti
- “I still can’t believe it”: the joy of Poland’s Natalia Sidorowicz, fourth in the individual short at Kontiolahti
- Frozen fingers, rifle problems, 92nd at the finish: Anamarija Lampic had one problem after another in the individual short at Kontiolahti.
- “It’s good for my head”: Anna Gandler explains why she does juggling sessions before her World Cup races
- Kontiolahti: Emilien Jacquelin, with a 10/10, takes the sprint and wins the World Cup for the first time in almost three years
- Kontiolahti: Emilien Jacquelin takes the red sprint bib, Johannes Thingnes Boe in yellow
- “There’s nothing exceptional about it”: after his magnificent success in the Kontiolahti sprint, Emilien Jacquelin is not getting carried away.
- Emilien Jacquelin tells Nordic Magazine after his resounding victory in the Kontiolahti sprint: “On the podium, I saw myself again three years ago in Le Grand-Bornand…”.
- “A private joke with a friend”: after the relay’s “Night Night”, Emilien Jacquelin celebrated his success in the Kontiolahti sprint with a finger on his mouth.
- “I had tears in my eyes”: Ole Einar Bjoerndalen was marked by Emilien Jacquelin’s return to favour
- “It did me good to get away from group A”: Antonin Guigonnat returned to the World Cup top 10 in the Kontiolahti sprint
- Kontiolahti: fourth in the sprint, New Zealand-born American Campbell Wright came close to pulling off a huge coup
- “Make it my strength, not my weakness”: Lou Jeanmonnot’s state of mind as he tackles the Kontiolahti sprint with the yellow bib on his shoulders.
- Kontiolahti: the renaissance of Czech Marketa Davidova, winner of the sprint, Océane Michelon best Frenchwoman
- Kontiolahti: Lou Jeanmonnot loses her yellow bib (already), Elvira Oeberg takes it over
- “I was already off the mat mentally while I was still on it physically”: how Lou Jeanmonnot got out of her standing shot in the Kontiolahti sprint
- Kontiolahti: tenth in the sprint, Océane Michelon keeps her blue bib as best U23 rider
- “The desire is there, but I’m trying to find my way, I can’t seem to put things together”: 47th in the Kontiolahti sprint, her worst result since December 2021, Julia Simon is worried.
- On the eve of his 30th birthday, Suvi Minkkinen takes his first World Cup podium finish
- 52 seconds 6 on the mat, 20 seconds between the fourth and fifth ball: a look back at Justine Braisaz-Bouchet’s interminable recumbent shot during the Kontiolahti sprint.
- Kontiolahti: first World Cup mass-start day for Jeanne Richard and Océane Michelon
- “There’s nothing dangerous”: once again hampered by a heart rhythm problem during the Kontiolahti sprint, Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold isn’t panicking
- Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold withdraws from the mass-start in Kontiolahti and the World Cup in Hochfilzen
