The French Julia Simon, Justine Braisaz-Bouchet and Lou Jeanmonnot won the podium in the sprint at the World Championships in Nove Mesto on Friday, ahead of Sophie Chauveau.
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The Marseillaise never stops ringing at the World Championships in Nove Mesto. After the Blues’ gold medal in the mixed relay on Wednesday, the women’s sprint was the scene, Friday February 9, of a historic result for French biathlon: a quadruplet, no less, with a gold medal signed Julia Simon. She thus captured her second individual title at the World Championships, after gold won in the Oberhof pursuit in 2023.
The new World Sprint Champion offered herself a faultless shot – 10/10, with a final time of 20’07″5 -, to finish ahead of Justine Braisaz-Bouchet, who made up for her error in the prone shot thanks to an impressive time on skis (+4″9). Lou Jeanmonnot, a standing shooting error, completes the leading trio (+40″8), while Sophie Chauveau finishes at the foot of the podium (+44″2). The leader of the general classification of the World Cup, Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold, once threatened the French quadruple in the sprint. But the Norwegian lost her advantage on the second shot by missing the target three times.
The Blues are getting ahead of the chase
France thus became the second nation, among women, to sign a quadruplet in the history of biathlon – Olympic Games, World Games and World Cup combined – after the USSR in 1984, in Chamonix.
“I haven’t seen all the French women yet, it’s completely crazy, commented Julia Simon on Eurosport. You say to yourself ‘I had a good race’, but when you see others who tell you ‘you’re World Champion’, you realize that it’s real. To do that at the World Championships is crazy and we’re going to remember it.” By winning the first four places in this sprint, the Blues have a huge head start for Sunday’s pursuit.