Biathlon | Quentin Fillon-Maillet still ambitious after his second place in the Pokljuka mass-start: “A season is played out right to the end!”

Biathlon: Quentin Fillon-Maillet second in Pokljuka mass start

As the winter draws to a close, Quentin Fillon-Maillet from the Jura is in fine form. Accumulating some of the fastest ski times on the circuit, the Grandvallier is ending the 2024/2025 season on a high. On Saturday, in the mass-start race at Pokljuka (Slovenia), he came second, beaten only in the final lap by his compatriot Eric Perrot.

In the mixed zone after the flower ceremony, he spoke to Nordic Magazine about his race and his goals for the end of the season .

• On Thursday, in the individual short, the balls were missing from the prone shot. This Saturday, they’re there in the mass-start and it’s a podium finish. What did you change?

It works better if you put the balls down! I just kept things simple, so there’s not much more to say. The feeling is getting better as the season goes on. I’m also starting to understand my mistakes and what I need to do to put the balls in. I’ve tried to be calm and clear-headed. It went really well right up to the end!

• Eric Perrot got the better of you on the last lap, which was a hard-fought battle…

We did the third and fourth laps together, which was good for extending our lead over Sebastian Samuelsson, Sturla Holm Lægreid and even Fabien [Claude]. It was great to be out in front with Eric [Perrot]. It was different from when you’re with a stranger. We know each other well and I know that he’s a good shot and that he wasn’t going to give up, but neither was I!

• How did the difference work out in his favour?

I could feel that he was very strong in turn 4 and I didn’t have too many options to win… I just wanted to keep in touch to play the sprint. There wasn’t victory at the end, but it was cool to be out in front. There are a lot of great things about this race!

• You’re in really good form on skis at the end of the season. What are your objectives for the final stage in Oslo-Holmenkollen (Norway)?

That’s exactly what I did on this mass-start: I shot well, played up front and managed my energy well right to the end. I’d also like to score some big points to move up again in the overall standings, into the top 5. Race after race, shot after shot, and that’s going to lead to great things. A season is played out right to the end!

_{[With Julie and Marie Le Bobinnec, in Pokljuka].}

• The full programme for the Pokljuka World Cup, the eighth stage of the 2024/2025 season
• Corinne Niogret: my best memory of… Pokljuka
• Lou Jeanmonnot vs Franziska Preuss and Johannes Thingnes Boe vs Sturla Holm Lægreid: in Pokljuka, a high-risk individual race in the race for the big crystal globe
• Pokljuka: Julia Simon follows up her victory by winning the individual short at 20/20, all the French women in the top 10
• Julia Simon tells Nordic Magazine after her success in the Pokljuka individual short: “I’m very happy to have built up this race in such a beautiful way”.
• Pokljuka: Lou Jeanmonnot wins the small crystal globe in the individual event, a first for a Frenchwoman
• Pokljuka: third in the individual short, Franziska Preuss claws back points from Lou Jeanmonnot in the race for the big globe
• “I’m not going to give up”: Lou Jeanmonnot tells Nordic Magazine after the individual short in Pokljuka
• Pokljuka: Océane Michelon takes command of the U23 rankings and will be wearing blue for the mass-start
• Océane Michelon, fifth in the Pokljuka individual short: “I’m copying and pasting from Kontiolahti”.
• Pokljuka: Jakov Fak wins the individual short on home soil, his first success since… 22 March 2015, Quentin Fillon-Maillet with the flowers
• “I’d love to grow old like him”, “I don’t have enough words to describe it”: Emilien Jacquelin and Eric Perrot impressed by Jakov Fak’s victory in Pokljuka at the age of 37
• Pokljuka: Sturla Holm Lægreid takes over the overall lead from Johannes Thingnes Boe after the individual short race
• Pokljuka: the small individual crystal globe for Sturla Holm Lægreid, as in 2021
• Pokljuka: reactions from Quentin Fillon-Maillet, Eric Perrot, Emilien Jacquelin, Oscar Lombardot, Emilien Claude and Fabien Claude after the individual short race
• Surprise for the French team: Antonin Guigonnat will start the mass start in Pokljuka
• Johannes Thingnes Boe withdraws for the end of the Pokljuka stage
• Pokljuka: no mass-start for Dorothea Wierer either

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.