Biathlon: Quentin Fillon-Maillet back on the winning track, Les Bleus on fire
1,037 days Quentin Fillon-Maillet has been waiting for this. The last time he triumphed in an individual World Cup race was on 10 March 2022, during the sprint in Otepää (Estonia). At the time, the Jura native was coming off an exceptional Olympic Games in Beijing in 2022, and a week later would lift his first crystal globe.
In short, the biathlete from Saint-Laurent-en-Grandvaux (Jura) was at the top of his game. Since that perfect season, Quentin Fillon-Maillet has had a difficult time. Eighth overall the following winter and then sixteenth last season, he even lost his bearings. But the customs officer from Franche-Comté is the type of rider who never stops working.
A treble not seen since the day Martin Fourcade retired
He never gave up and was back on the podium at the very start of the season in the mass-start in Kontiolahti (Finland). After taking a step back in Hochfilzen (Austria) and Le Grand-Bornand (Haute-Savoie), he put in a magnificent performance to win the sprint in Oberhof (Germany) on Friday afternoon. With a score of 10/10 and a blistering ski time, the third fastest of the 100 competitors, he dominated the race to triumph for the fifteenth time in a World Cup race.
Behind them, above all, it was the entire French team that put in a crazy sprint, with Fabien Claude (10/10) taking second place at 14 sec 9 and Dauphinois Emilien Jacquelin (9/10) third at 22 sec 1. The last time France had achieved a result before this was on 14 March 2020, the day Martin Fourcade said farewell in the silence of the mass start in Kontiolahti.
The party was rounded off by eighth place for Emilien Claude (10/10), a career best, and tenth forEric Perrot (9/10). Antonin Guigonnat (7/10) was forty-first.
𝗕𝗟𝗘𝗨 𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗚𝗥𝗔𝗟! 1️⃣2️⃣3️⃣
French hat-trick in the Oberhof sprint biathlon@quentinfillon @fabien_claude1 @EmilienJck
📷 Nordic Focus pic.twitter.com/pEGyCCzFqD– FFS – Fédération Française de Ski (@FedFranceSki) January 10, 2025
Full results
- The full programme for the Oberhof World Cup, the fourth stage of the 2024/2025 season
- Corinne Niogret: my best memory of… Oberhof
- Oberhof: Paula Botet, with 10/10, dominates the sprint and wins her first World Cup title
- “I realise it, but I think it’s crazy”: Paula Botet recounts her unlikely victory in the Oberhof World Cup sprint
- “With the difficulties she’s faced over the last two seasons, this is exceptional”: Cyril Burdet touched by Paula Botet’s performance at Oberhof
- Oberhof: the photo album of Paula Botet’s first World Cup victory
- Oberhof: Paula Botet, the thirteenth Frenchwoman to win individually on the World Cup circuit
- “Her victory is proof that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”: Paula Botet’s first World Cup success as seen by Chloé Remy, a lifelong friend and former team-mate.
- Oberhof: third in the sprint, Bulgarian Milena Todorova gives Bulgaria its first women’s World Cup podium since… 13 March 2004
- “I wanted to fight with the weapons of the day”: Océane Michelon, who was suffering from flu, won her very first flower ceremony in the Oberhof sprint.
- Paula Botet to replace Sophie Chauveau: the French selection for the Oberhof World Cup
- “She completely deserves to go up”: why the team staff decided to replace Sophie Chauveau with Paula Botet for the Oberhof World Cup
- “I can’t ski with the athletes”: Simon Fourcade, coach of the French men’s team, ruptures the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee
