Biathlon: Gilonne Guigonnat wins the Otepää sprint
Last month, Gilonne Guigonnat from Chablais was in trouble. While she was playing for the reserve ticket for the Worlds against Paula Botet and Sophie Chauveau in Ridnaun-Val Ridanna (Italy), she didn ‘t even finish the week of the IBU Cup. It has to be said that she had just come back from a bout of flu and wasn’t feeling well.
A few weeks later, the Haut-Savoyard seems to have rediscovered her full potential. This Thursday morning, in the sprint at the IBU Cup in Otepää (Estonia), Gilonne Guigonnat dominated the proceedings. Although she made a mistake on her downhill shot, she then put the turbo on her cross-country skis, scored 5/5 on the standing and finished the race with a bang.
The biathlete from the Ski Club de Villard-sur-Boëge won the IBU Cup for the second time this winter with a clear lead over her rivals. Italy’s Rebecca Passler (8/10), in second place, was relegated to 25 sec 3 while the Czech Republic’s Krystina Otcovska (9/10), in third, was 29 sec 8 back.
The flower ceremony was completed by Emma Nilsson (10/10), Juni Arnekleiv (7/10) and Sara Scattolo (10/10), while Zuzana Remenova (9/10), Lara Wagner (8/10), Camille Bened (8/10) and Erika Oesterman (9/10) made up the day’s top 10. With this ninth place, the Frenchwoman is 14 points behind Voldiya Galmace-Paulin in the overall standings.
Paula Botet (6/10), who was well in the lead after the prone event, missed out on the standing event by a wide margin, clearing just one target and finishing in fifteenth place. However, she widened her lead in the speciality rankings and will now be 30 points clear of Voldiya Galmace-Paulin ahead of the final sprint at the same venue next week.
Finally, Fany Bertrand (8/10) from Savoie was seventeenth on her return to the IBU Cup.
Full results
IBU Cup general ranking
The overall ranking of the IBU Cup sprint
- The full programme for the first IBU Cup in Otepää, the eighth stage of the 2024/2025 B circuit season
- A first for Antonin Delsol, Fany Bertrand returns: France unveils its first selection for the IBU Cup in Otepää
- Voldiya Galmace-Paulin, Célia Henaff, Edgar Geny and Gaëtan Paturel complete the French squad for the IBU Cup in Otepää
