Norwegian Johannes Boe won, on Saturday March 18 in Oslo-Holmenkollen, the last prosecution of the season. Quentin Fillon Maillet finished second, against a background of rupture between French biathletes and their coaches.
The world with AFP
For him, it’s a triumphant end of the season. For them, it is time that it ends. Johannes Boe won, on Saturday March 18, in Oslo-Holmenkollen, the last prosecution of winter. The Norwegian, who was already guaranteed to win the World Cup of the specialty and finish at the top of the general classification, all disciplines of biathlon combined, wins his 15 individual victory there. The younger of the Boe brothers also won three individual gold medals at the Oberhof World Championships. His record was also expanded this winter of several victories this winter during the relay events, in which the Norwegian teams were dominating. For the French male team, on the other hand, the time is not to count the accessits but for tearing, despite the 2 e place de Quentin Fillon Maillet in the race of the day.
At the end of a season without individual success, French biathletes and their coaches made their breakup public. Friday, March 17, Vincent Vittoz and Patrick Favre, coaches of the Blues for five years, announced their departure at the end of the season, no longer considering himself in tune with [their] athletes “. “We feel that they are not able to hear some of our speeches. We were ready to continue, clearly. But today there is a break,” said Vincent Vittoz, world ski champion Background in 2005. The Italian Patrick Favre, shooting coach of the best tricolor biathletes, rushed the point: “We had a lot of ideas [to bounce back after a bad season] but they do not stick [with those of athletes]. Training is based a lot on confidence. Today, we feel that this confidence is missing. Forcing things is not a good thing. “
” bankruptcy “of leaders
The explanations of the two coaches, of a fairly rare franchise in high -level sport, where communication is generally very framed, then targeted two athletes more directly. Vittoz spoke of “The bankruptcy” of Quentin Fillon Maillet and Emilien Jacquelin, presented as the two leaders of the French team in early winter. The Blues have only totaled six individual podiums in the World Cup since the start of the season: two for Fillon Maillet, three for Jacquelin, and one for young Eric Perrot.
“Quentin [Fillon Maillet], he never wanted to hear the warning messages [saying that] it would not be a year like the others [after two Olympic gold medals in 2022], says Vittoz. He wanted to show all those who told him that it was going to be a more difficult year than he would not reach him, because it is a machine. He was a little read. We tried to warn it. “