No podium for the men’s relay this Thursday. But a nice reaction. Four days after the sinking of Oberhof (7th), the French quartet played in front for a long time in Ruhpolding before finishing in a frustrating 4th place, twelve seconds behind Italy (+59″), which completes the podium behind the untouchable Norway and a Germany that has come a long way (+45″). Despite the absence of Johannes Boe, left to rest, Norway remains undefeated this winter in the men’s relay (four victories). This was the last relay by gender before the Worlds in Nove Mesto.
After the first three shots, the Blues had already made more mistakes (5) than the French quartet who won yesterday’s women’s relay (4). This didn’t bode well. But if the precision was not really there, the whole proved to be sufficiently solid to battle with the best nations until the end. Placed as opener, Eric Perrot (3 picks) really impressed on skis. The cadet of the blue band was 8th at the end of his standing shot (+14″)? He was in 2nd position a lap further, in Germany’s skis, having taken care to distance himself from Sturla Laegreid in the process. , who nevertheless had a 4″ margin over the 22-year-old Frenchman.
Solid against targets, Tarjei Boe made the difference
In the 2nd relay, Emilien Jacquelin was the quickest to release the first balls. Without much success lying down (2 picks). But he had the fire under his skis, closing his 17″ gap on the race lead in one lap, to return to the stadium in the company of Johannes Dale-Skjevdal, Johannes Kuehn and the American Sean Doherty. Following the standing (1 pickaxe), Jacquelin took the lead by overtaking Doherty at the start of the 3rd lap. Kuehn (1 pickaxe) then joined him At the halfway point, Germany and France were therefore in the lead, four short seconds ahead of Norway , who was hot on Dale’s standing shot (3 picks, 22″ behind Jacquelin when leaving the stadium).
Emilien Jacquelin, during the Oberhof men’s relay – 01/07/2024
Credit: Imago
The three nations stayed together for two rounds, Benedikt Doll, Fabien Claude and Tarjei Boe having scored 5/5 in the prone position. The difference was made standing up. The Norwegian released another perfect shot, while the German went twice into the penalty ring and the Frenchman once. The matter therefore seemed to have already been decided at the start of the 4th stint. With a 42″ margin, Vetle Christiansen only had to validate a new victory for Norway. Behind, there were still six nations for the last two places on the podium.
Italy beats France to the wire
Quentin Fillon Maillet seemed well on his way to finishing the blue relay in 2nd place. This was his rank after the prone shot, impeccable, only 32″ behind Christiansen (2 picks) and 13″ ahead of Philipp Nawrath. But the Jura native was not having a great day on skis. Half a lap later, the German had already come back on him, with Italy and Switzerland in ambush. “QFM” only drew once while standing, just like Nawrath.
But the latter, faster against the targets, launched his last lap with a 9″ margin over the Frenchman, now accompanied by Tommaso Giacomel. Only 3rd place remained possible for France. But the Italian managed to outrun the five-time Olympic medalist from the first bump. A frustrating outcome but the overall encouraging picture gives hope for good things for the Blues during Saturday’s sprint at 2:30 p.m.
2024-01-11 15:55:00
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