Biathlon : caution will continue to be the order of the day for Jean-Pierre Amat and Les Bleus on the Bornandin shooting range
This Thursday, the Biathlon World Cup makes its stop in Grand-Bornand, Haute-Savoie. Two years after the last world competitions held at the Sylvie-Becaert stadium, the world’s best biathletes will once again be battling it out on the slopes of Haute-Savoie, where crowds are expected to flock once again.
At the start of the afternoon, it’s the men’s race who will get the ball rolling with a sprint that should be contested in the pouring rain, which won’t make the snow conditions any easier. A real headache for the technicians from all the nations as they get down to the nitty-gritty of this weekend’s competition.
On the other hand, while the weather looks set to be difficult and capricious, there is one aspect that could well enable a few competitors to come out on top. Throughout the four days of competition, competitors will be competing not only on the track, but also on a shooting range labelled as ‘easy’ by the specialists.
There‘s very little wind on the Grand-Bornand shooting range,” Jean-Pierre Amat, the French team’s shooting coach, confirmed in the mixed zone after training. It’s one of the easier shooting ranges on the face of it, but when you take it too easy, you can slip up.
” It’s easy, but there’s no room for error “.Jean-Pierre Amat at Nordic Magazine
A warning from the Savoyard coach who “can’t imagine a podium without a full house in the shooting”. So from Thursday onwards, you’ll need to be diligent on the mats in Bornand to aim for the top of the rankings, while conserving your energy on a track that could lose some of its quality depending on the weather conditions: “It’s easy, but there’s no room for error”, added the rifle shooting gold medallist from the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta (USA).
(With Florian Burgaud at Le Grand-Bornand)
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