Biathlon: Quentin Fillon-Maillet unhappy
Quentin Fillon-Maillet’s 2025 World Biathlon Championships will not get underway until Saturday. While the mixed relay is scheduled for this Wednesday afternoon, the Jurassien and reigning Olympic vice-champion in the speciality will not be taking part.
A starter in the last four mixed relays at the World Championships and world champion in this event last year in Nove Mesto (Czech Republic), the Grandvallier didn’t hide his disappointment from La Chaîne L’Equipe.
“I’m not at all angry with Emilien [Jacquelin] or Eric [Perrot] who did absolutely nothing, it’s the staff that I’m angry with, he said, irritated. I showed a lot of desire to take part in these team relays. I didn’t skip out because I wanted to race and show that I belong in this relay. Despite everything, it didn’t pay off. It’s a difficult decision, but I thought I deserved more consideration from the staff.”
A few minutes earlier, Stéphane Bouthiaux, the head of French biathlon, had explained the methodology behind the appointments of Eric Perrot and Emilien Jacquelin.
“It was complicated because the boys all did excellent relays this year. We decided to follow the sporting logic and looked at the overall World Cup ranking, where the two best placed were Eric [Perrot] and Emilien [Jacquelin], he said. From a sporting point of view, it wasn’t a very debatable decision, even if we know that Quentin [Fillon-Maillet] could well have had a place in this relay, like Fabien [Claude]. We had to make a choice, and we made it based on sporting logic.”
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