TWENTY FUCKING SECONDS AHEAD!!!!! This is what Quentin Fillon Maillet counted after the last shot standing, after an excellent last shot at 5/5 (20/20 in total) in less than 17 seconds, which should have opened, at a minimum, the doors to his first solo podium of the season at the Anterselva mass start on Sunday. The commentators of chain The Team was already dancing on the table (and we were popping the champagne), finally celebrating a French victory for the boys in a season which until then had seemed like a real ordeal.
Except that the Franc Comtois ended up being overtaken by the two Norwegians who were following him, first from a distance, then closer and closer. Until the fatal turn where Johannes Dale, shown on rockets, dropped him on the side, before seeing Soerum do the same in the last hectometers of the race. But how was the five-time Olympic medalist in Beijing able to break through such widths on the skis in the last portion of the race?
Questioned a few minutes after crossing the finish line but also his nerves, QFM suggested without saying it that the difference was made on the glide, and therefore on a matter of equipment. “I gave my all today, I am really very satisfied with my shooting and my management of the race. I don’t need to explain how I lost the podium today, or even perhaps the victory, he declared. It’s frustrating but it’s the game. It’s an addition of things that makes it work, it happens elsewhere, on a point that I don’t control. So it’s definitely a big disappointment, I wanted to have a good race today.”
If he did not hide his disappointment, the French biathlete did not want to upset the technicians of the French team. “I hope they find the solution for the girls’ race. Like on relays, we win and lose together, we are a team. It’s clear that there is anger at the end of the race because I missed my first podium, or even my first victory of the season, but they are also there in the good moments. It’s hard to swallow now. They invest a lot despite everything and I thank them all the same,” he managed to say at the microphone of the L’Equipe channel.