Biathlon World Championships

France wins gold ++ ÖSV relay team 17th!

Emilien Jacquelin, Eric Perrot, Lou Jeanmonnot, Julia Simon

(Bild: AFP/APA/FRANCK FIFE)

Co-favorite France has won gold in the mixed relay at the biathlon world championship opener in Lenzerheide!

Julia Simon, Lou Jeanmonnot, Eric Perrot and Emilien Jacquelin performed convincingly on Wednesday and won with a lead of 1:13.8 minutes despite Jacquelin's penalty loop. Silver went unexpectedly to the Czech quartet, with Germany a further 4.6 seconds behind in bronze. The star teams of Norway and Sweden finished fourth and fifth respectively, Austria's team came 17th.

ÖSV starter Tamara Steiner had only handed over in 18th place, Anna Gandler, who had been ill recently, came tenth after a good performance. Simon Eder lost four places, David Komatz three more, mainly due to two penalties in prone shooting. The ÖSV team was the last of the 24 teams not to be lapped, finishing 4:52.0 minutes behind, with ten reloads in addition to the two penalties. The red-white-red team had to do without Lisa Hauser and Felix Leitner, who had been suffering from health problems recently.

Only Gandler in the ÖSV team with an appealing performance
Gandler had also been ill recently, but she delivered a good personal performance. The Tyrolean was happy with her first flawless shooting of the season, adding that her skiing could be better. "But I'm surprised by the race. I thought I would be worse. It was a good clean and I think I'll get better from race to race." Komatz was somewhat perplexed by his shooting weakness: "I can't explain to myself why it went so badly in the prone position. It was certainly an instructive race," said the Styrian in the ORF interview.

The Norwegians had already fallen behind seemingly hopelessly due to starting skier Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold, the four-time world champion, who had heart surgery before Christmas, shot two penalty loops. Superstar Johannes Thingnes Bö finally saw the medal in front of him, but missed it by 2.7 seconds. The Swedes, who were affected by falls, also made up ground, but it wasn't enough for more than fifth place ahead of the local heroes from Switzerland. After a rest day, the championships will continue on Friday with the sprint and pursuit races.