Biathlon: a fall in the final kilometres for Emilien Jacquelin
The final round of the men’s pursuit at the Biathlon World Cup in Hochfilzen (Austria) provided quite a spectacle on Saturday afternoon. As Johannes Thingnes Boe and Emilien Jacquelin battled it out for victory on one of the final bumps of the course, the Dauphinois fell, leaving the Norwegian to escape.
“It’s never normal with me, there’s always a little trick, laughed the Olympic relay medallist in the mixed zone to La Chaîne L’Equipe. I had a feeling he was going to pass. In all honesty, when you get to the top of the climb, you have very little energy left. I can’t necessarily see where I stand and where he’s going. I think I still had a bit of energy left to take his skis even if he passed me. That’s just the way it is…”
His coach Simon Fourcade, who was right where the collision took place, told his side of the story: “He had a slight advantage when he passed in front of me and I saw that Johannes [Thingnes Boe] was overtaking him on the right […]. That’s when he stepped on Emilien [Jacquelin]’s right ski and fell, just in front of me”, recalled the Catalan.
A “strategic error” in the final round
Emilien Jacquelin was slow to recover and, above all, to get back on track, and all he could do was play for second place against Sturla Holm Lægreid. He won the sprint. “I set the best time in the pursuit and on skis. It was almost a perfect race,” he added.
According to his coach, it would have been a perfect performance had he not taken the lead of the leading trio when he left the shooting range.
“I think he made a small strategic error, said Simon Fourcade. He made his effort a little too early. I don’t think it was up to him to make the effort, he was the only Frenchman! He won’t make the same mistake again next week if he’s in the same situation.”
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