Julia Simon Roars Back with Individual Gold

France’s Julia Simon, unable to defend her Sprint and Pursuit titles from Nove Mesto, roared back today, winning the BMW IBU World Championships 15 km Individual in 41:27.1. Simon after six penalties in Sunday’s Pursuit, took the lead after the second prone stage, missed a single shot in the final standing and with a fast last loop sealed her second Gold medal to her Mixed Relay Gold last week.

“Good Strategy”

Today’s victory gave the 2023 World Cup total Score winner four individual WCH Gold medals. “It feels so good. It was so hard in the last lap. My legs were burning so much. But I feel really good. I think I had a really good strategy on skis. I started fast, but not too fast. Always in a good rhythm. I felt confident on the shooting range, so I feel really good. “

“Strong talk with Jean Paul”

She admitted the past few days have been rough, but she had confidence today after a talk with Coach Jean Paul Giachino. “The last week was very tough. I had a big fall in the Mixed Relay and had a lot of headaches. I felt like my focus was not really good ion the shooting range, so I slept a lot. This morning, I had a strong talk with Jean Paul. I told him I feel like I enjoy biathlon but am missing something really important like I had last winter. Something you can have in the last lap to make the difference. He said, ‘If you can’t do biathlon so good for you, do it for your family and staff. I thought about it a lot during the race today and feel amazing.”

Swedcen’s Ella Halvarsson in her debut World Championships shot clean for the Silver medal, 37.1 seconds back. Simon’s teammate Lou Jeanmonnot, like Simon, shut out of the medals in the Sprint and Pursuit, won the third IBU WCH Bronze medal of her career, 39.2 seconds back, with a single missed target.

Finland’s Sprint Bronze medalist Suvi Minkkinen shot clean in fourth place, 1:15.3 back. Ukraine’s Yulia Dzhima also shot clean in fifth, 1:23.8 back. Sweden’s Elvira Oeberg, with one penalty finished sixth, 1:29.8 back. After a recovery day, sunshine and 6 degrees greeted the women for their individual competition.

Photos: IBU/ Vianney Thibaut, Nordic Focus

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