Another radiant weekend for French biathlon with two new trophies for Lou Jeanmonnot and Eric Perrot, who definitely leave only crumbs for the competition. After both winning the big World Cup globe, Jeanmonnot and Perrot went to get the small pursuit globe this Saturday near Oslo. Perrot finished second behind Norwegian Sturla Laegreid, who beat him to the photo finish after the 12.5 km race.
This is the fourth globe of the season for the new star of French biathlon among men, after the big globe in the general classification of the World Cup and the small ones in mass start and individual. Lou Jeanmonnot also completes her collection after having gleaned the crystal globe and the small individual and sprint globes. “It’s the icing on the cake because the season is already completely successful,” savored the 27-year-old from Jura, fourth in the pursuit in the Holmenkollen stadium (19/20), won in the sprint by the Swede Hanna Oeberg (17/20).
Jeanmonnot can still make the Grand Slam
Before the last pursuit of the season, Jeanmonnot was 20 points behind the Finn in the specialty rankings. But Minkkinen missed his start to the race with two faults and finished 23rd. “Suvi left a door open and it would have been a shame not to take it. It’s far from what she’s capable of doing but in the end the globe goes into someone’s hands and I’m not disappointed that it’s in mine,” confided Jeanmonnot after the race.
Mathematically, she can still achieve the Grand Slam on Sunday with the mass start globe but she is 45 points behind Julia Simon, second in the pursuit on Saturday (19/20). “45 points is definitely a lot. I want to take advantage of this mass start to finally do a committed and relaxed biathlon. If a door opens, I hope to be able to take it and otherwise it won’t change much,” assured the queen of the French bibi, a year after her terrible disillusionment during the last stage of the World Cup.
Leave a Reply