Biathlon: Maya Cloetens competed in the Sjusjøen sprint… on her cross-country training skis
On Saturday, 22-year-old Franco-Belgian biathlete Maya Cloetens suffered an unfortunate mishap before the start of the sprint at the opening Norwegian races in Sjusjøen (Norway). “As it happens, I set off with my training skis… totally my fault. I’m a bit absent-minded because it’s not the first time I’ve done something stupid,” she told Nordic Magazine with a smile.
For this event, for which she started with number 76, the Dauphinoise, like all the competitors, had to warm up by running. So she put on her trainers for the run. Once she had arrived at the farteurs’ hut to collect her cross-country skis, which had been meticulously prepared by the technicians, she changed from sports boots to ski boots.
Maya Cloetens explains what happened next: “I put my skis down to do this… and I went to the start without them! In my defence, they put our skis in a rack in the World Cup. I realised this two minutes before the start and I quickly realised that I wouldn’t have time to go to the hut to get them. The only solution was to take my training skis, which weren’t far away.”
As they don’t slide because they weren’t made for it, these skis didn’t allow the Belgian to show her best side. Forty-first in this sprint at 9/10, she actually set the fifty-fifth fastest time on the track. Maya Cloetens wanted to show a completely different face this Sunday in the mass start.
A convincing mass-start after the misadventure of the sprint
“I wanted to do well because the sprint was a bit of a mess, she continues. I’d used up my joker and there was no room for error. I wanted to give it my all and I didn’t want to be bothered!” Playing up front for much of the race, she was even in the top 6 after the first standing shot (14/15).
“It was a great race where I was able to play the game right to the end. When I realised I was sixth on the fourth lap, it was so cool. The feeling on the skis is much better with skis that go fast! I didn’t finish very well with three faults in the last shot, which is a shame, but that’s what you have to go through to be able to use them next time”, explained the skier who is a member of GUC Grenoble Ski, who finally finished eighteenth.
With just two weeks to go before the World Cup kicks off, Maya Cloetens is back in the thick of the competition.
“For the Norwegians, the stakes were high with these selections determining the rest of the season. There was a huge level! Personally, I’ll remember the great shots apart from the very last one and the good feeling on the piste and the fact that I can be at the same level as the best girls on skis [sixteenth in the mass-start, editor’s note]. I’m really looking forward to Kontiolahti,” she concludes.
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- Why Maya Cloetens decided to become a Belgian sportswoman
- Maya Cloetens looks back on her second winter in Belgian colours: “It’s the first time in my career that I’ve come back after a bad start to a season”.
