Women’s relay – Disqualified from the relay, the French lose the small globe of the specialty

Big slap for the France team. While it was enough to finish in the top seven to afford the small globe of the discipline, the Blues missed out on the Kontiolathi relay, won by Norway. Already in big trouble after the first two stints, France lost everything during the passage of Justine Braisaz-Bouchet. The big mistake of the Olympic champion in the mass-start, who used a ball from another charger after dropping a ball, caused the disqualification of the Tricolores, who therefore left the relay globe to the Sweden, which took 2nd place (+37”7) this Thursday, ahead of Italy (+1’00”2).

We imagined a lot of scenarios, we could possibly believe that France was going to lose the small globe of the relay after being on the podium of the first four events of the season in the World Cup but we did not expect that. Everything changed during the third stint and Justine Braisaz-Bouchet’s standing shot. At this moment, the situation is already complicated for the French team, pushed back to 10th position after the two penalty rounds of Anaïs Chevalier-Bouchet. Pointed more than two minutes from the head of the race, the French have already forgotten their hopes of victory and are then struggling to secure the small globe. Given the overwhelming domination of Norway, a 13th place would have been enough. And yet…

A stray bullet that costs the globe

After losing one of the six pickaxe balls she had on the bench, Justine Braisaz-Bouchet finds herself in difficulty on the standing, when she again makes a mistake three times. The Frenchman lacks a bullet and decides to engage a loader to clear the remaining target. A prohibited action and which the commissioners unfortunately did not let pass for Les Bleues. Despite the good recovery of Julia Simon (6th on the line but not counted), which gave a time of hope despite the asterisk which accompanied the French results, the Tricolores were logically disqualified and lost everything in the case. The head of the classification by nations but, above all, the small globe of the relay, which goes to Sweden.

However, despite the forcing of the Oeberg sisters placed in 3rd and 4th torchbearers, the Swedes never managed to come back to Norway, indisputable winners of this relay from Kontiolathi, in Finland. Perfectly launched by Marte Olsbu Roeiseland and Tiril Eckhoff, the Norwegians already had a lead of nearly a minute over Sweden at the halfway mark. Helped by a big success on the launch pad (only 4 pickaxes in all!), they never cracked to claim their first relay victory of the season. But it is Sweden that will return from Finland with the small globe of the specialty. Much to the chagrin of the French…