Biathlon: out of form after coming down with flu, Gilonne Guigonnat was unable to compete
Over the last few days, at theIBU Biathlon Cup in Ridnaun-Val Ridanna (Italy), the sixth and final place in the French women’s team for the World Championships in Lenzerheide (Switzerland) was at stake.
Three contenders were on the starting line, as Nordic Magazine revealed as soon as the selection was unveiled by the French Ski Federation (FFS): Sophie Chauveau, Paula Botet and Gilonne Guigonnat. With no World Cup podiums to her name this winter, Guigonnat was one step behind the rest of the field.
Out of form after falling ill at the start of January, the Chablais rider – who didn ‘t finish the pursuit before withdrawing from the Mass-Start 60 – quickly had to give up her hopes of qualifying.
“She’s having a really hard time getting over her flu. As we say in our jargon, she’s got no juice,” Stéphane Bouthiaux, director of the French biathlon teams, told Nordic Magazine.
The Ridnaun-Val Ridanna mass-start weighed heavily in the balance
As a result, only Paula Botet and Sophie Chauveau were still in the running to travel to Switzerland in February. “The rules of the game were clear: the best girl of the week would be the sixth girl at the Worlds”, says the head of the French biathlon.
“Paula [Botet] did a very good sprint with her second place and Sophie [Chauveau] won [the mass-start 60], recalled Stéphane Bouthiaux , looking back on the Ridnaun-Val Ridanna competitions. However, over the week as a whole, she was a little better than Paula [Botet], so it was her. There’s no ambiguity now.”
It has to be said that the Vosges native, with a second, seventh and twentieth place, was no match for her team-mate’s string of fifth, third and first places.
Despite winning the World Cup sprint in Oberhof (Germany), Paula Botet will have to watch the Worlds from home , while Sophie Chauveau, resilient after her IBU Cup crash at the beginning of January, is back at the highest international level. Admittedly in a back-up role with very little chance of pulling on a bib, the Bornand native is back in the game.
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