France’s Julia Simon added clean shooting day to her growing resume to seal the victory for her and teammates Lou Jeanmonnot, Anais Chevalier-Bouchet, and Chloe Chevalier in this morning’s Hochfilzen women’s 4 X 6 km relay. France used just four spare rounds in their 1:14:22.1 win. Sweden, with nine spare rounds finished second, 10.4 seconds back. Italy, also with four spares finished third, 18.5 seconds back.

Simon’s Shooting Perfection

Simon, who now has missed just five shots out of 100 fired in competitions this season knew that her perfect and extremely fast standing stage decided the win. “It was the key to the win. It was a really tough fight with Elvira. I knew I had to shoot clean because she is so fast on the tracks. So. I tried to shoot fast and clean. I started the last lap quite slow to confirm my speed and the first place. The team did a really great job; good teamwork…really happy.”

Germany, with five spares, finished fourth, 33.7 seconds back. Norway, with four spares finished fifth, 1:12.9 back. Switzerland with six spares finished sixth, 2:14.2 back.

Windy Relay

Cloudy, -4C and again wind that kept the wind flags in constant motion, set the stage for the second women’s relay of the new season. Switzerland followed closely by Sweden led eight teams out of the first prone stage within 11 seconds. Linn Persson cleaned standing, shooting very carefully with the wind gusting from the left to right on the range. That put her 7.2 seconds up on Italy and Germany, further pulling away from the field as she headed to the first exchange. Jeanmonnot in her second-ever World Cup relay helped set up the French win with a fast last loop. “I am happy to be in the relay today; I hope it is not the last time. I was really focused on doing my best after being disappointed in Kontiolahti; I learned that I needed to calm myself and shoot faster.”

Persson’s “perfect race”

Persson tagged Anna Magnusson with a substantial 15-second lead over Italy’s second leg Dorothea Wierer and Chevalier-Bouchet.

Chevalier-Bouchet and Wierer cleaned prone in five shots while the Swede used two spares, dropping back 14 seconds. Wierer mowed down the five targets rapidly, gone with a 15-second lead while her French rival used two spares; Magnusson cleaned, closing to within 5 seconds of France.

Leader Comola, “a little bit nervous’

At the second exchange, the Italy’s Samuela Comola held a 12-second lead over Chevalier, taking the tag from her sister 22 seconds over Hanna Oeberg and 31 seconds over Germany’s third leg Venessa Voigt. The Italian and German cleaned prone in five shots, leaving 3 seconds apart; Voigt was 5-for-5 moving into third, 30 seconds back. Hanna struggled with three spares, falling 5 seconds behind the German. With the wind flags flapping hard, everyone used spares in standing. Comola left with just a second over her French rival with Hanna moving to 7 seconds back and Voigt 9.8 seconds back with a 2 km loop to the exchange.

Hanna’s Shooting “not what I expected”

Hanna woke up suddenly, shooting into the lead, stretching the gap to eleven seconds when she tagged Elvira with Simon for France and Germany’s Denise Herrmann-Wick leaving together. On opening the gap, Hanna said, “I got a pretty good starting position on my leg…Linn did a perfect race and Anna did a good job on the second leg so I was in close contact with the leading teams. I was just trying to make my own race. Unfortunately, my shooting was not what I expected today, but skiing was pretty good and I still managed to send Elvira out in the lead.”

Lisa Vittozzi was fourth, 19 seconds from the lead. Simon, extending her prefect prone streak was fast and quicker than Elvira who used a spare, giving France a half step lead. Vittozzi moved to third position ahead of Herrmann-Wick.

Simon Delivers Win in Standing

Elvira set the pace into the deciding standing stage, with Simon clinging to her shoulder, with Vittozzi and Herrmann-Wick in a similar battle a dozen seconds back. Simon shot brilliantly fast and clean in the deciding standing stage, taking a 16-second lead as Elvira needed a spare round to clean, while Vittozzi, using a spare gained the upper hand on Germany. Simon skied the last loop unchallenged for the victory ahead of Sweden and Italy.

Praise for France

Chevalier-Bouchet called Simon’s performance today, “incredible. She is doing things so simply. She is very impressive; I think she will enjoy Le Grand Bornand (next week) with the Yellow Bib. It will be fun!” Hanna Oeberg seconded her comment. “Julia did a really good race today. I am really impressed with the French team today. We just have to congratulate them today. They deserved the win.”

Photos: IBU/Christian Manzoni, Jasmine Walter