Biathlon: Les Bleus prepare in Norway
The French men’s A biathlon team has been training on the snow in Sjusjøen (Norway) for a week now. Oscar Lombardot, Fabien Claude, Eric Perrot, Quentin Fillon-Maillet and Emilien Jacquelin have returned to the snow for their final training camp of the preparation programme, putting on their cross-country skis for the first time in months.
éWe have very good conditions, even if it’s not very wintry, their coach Simon Fourcade explained to Nordic Magazine. The temperatures are cold enough for us to have a good track, even if it deteriorates slightly as the day goes on. As it refreezes in the evening, we have good working conditions.”
It was on a 3.5 kilometre long track with “a good depth of snow and a very suitable width” that the French skiers did their sessions. “First of all, we had to find our footing for the first few days, then we were quickly able to get into the intensity sessions that we wanted to put in place, both in shooting and on the skis. The signs are pretty much green for everyone, but the final test is the race and we’ll see where we stand this weekend,” added Simon Fourcade.
On Saturday and Sunday, Oscar Lombardot, Fabien Claude, Eric Perrot, Quentin Fillon-Maillet and Emilien Jacquelin will take part in the opening Norwegian races in Sjusjøen against the kingdom’s best biathletes. It’s an opportunity to test their mettle a fortnight before the start of the World Cup in Kontiolahti (Finland).
Photo album of Les Bleus training in Sjusjøen (Norway)
The full programme of Norwegian opening races at Sjusjøen 🇳🇴
Thursday 14 November
- 17:00: team leaders’ meeting
Friday 15 November
- 9.00am-11.00am: official ladies’ training
- 11.30am-1.30pm: official men’s training
Saturday 16th November
- 8.40am-9.35am: women’s shooting trials
- 9.45am: women’s 7.5 km sprint
- 11.10am-12.05pm: Men’s shooting trials
- 12.15pm: Men’s 10km sprint
Sunday 17 November
- 10:00-10:30: Men’s B race shooting trials
- 10.45am: men’s 80 15km mass-start (race B)
- 11.45am-12.15pm: Women’s shooting trials
- 12.30pm: women’s mass-start 40+40 12.5 km
- 13:30-14:00: Men’s A race shooting trial
- 2.15pm: men’s 15km mass-start (race A)
- “A real mouth-watering start to the season”: the day the French men’s team set off on their training camp in Sjusjøen
- “We already made this choice last year”: why the French women’s team decided to finish their preparations in Bessans and not in Sjusjøen with the boys.
- Dorothea Wierer and the Italian men’s national team head for Sjusjøen
- The full programme of Norwegian opening races at Sjusjøen in which the French will be taking part
- One men’s and three women’s World Cup tickets, tickets for the IBU Cup: all the stakes for Norway in the Sjusjøen races
