Full box for the Blues! French biathletes Lou Jeanmonnot, Justine Braisaz-Bouchet, Sophie Chauveau and Julia Simon won the relay (4×6 km) in Oberhof (Germany) on Sunday, the conclusion of a perfect weekend for the Bleues who won all three races at program.
After the victory of Justine Braisaz-Bouchet in the sprint on Friday (and the third place of Sophie Chauveau) and the success of Julia Simon ahead of Braisaz-Bouchet in the pursuit, the Blues therefore won as teams ahead of Norway and Sweden. This is the first relay victory for the French women’s biathlon team this season, the eighth in total this winter (out of a total of thirteen races), if we add the seven individual victories.
A France-Norway duel won by the Blues
Lou Jeanmonnot launched the tricolor relay perfectly with a single pickaxe on his prone shot. She passed the baton to Justine Braisaz-Bouchet in second position, in a trio with Norway and Sweden who crushed the race. “JBB” once again showed that she was the strongest at the moment on skis, passing the baton in the lead to Sophie Chauveau, despite a big scare with three picks on the standing shot, while avoiding the penalty round .
Chauveau also experienced some thrills with three consecutive fouls in the standing shot, but blanked all subsequent targets with three picks to avoid the penalty ring. Julia Simon took over with a good twenty seconds lead over Norwegian Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold, who gave last year’s World Cup winner a hard time. After a flawless performance in the prone shot, Simon drew three times on the same target in the standing shot and began the final round with only twelve seconds ahead of Tandrevold, which she managed to hold on to cross the line in head.