France Dominates Mixed Relay for Second Consecutive Gold medal

France took control of this afternoon’s IBU World Championships Mixed Relay just after the first exchange and never looked back, with anchor Emilien Jacquelin bringing home their second consecutive Gold medal in 1:04:41.5. Jacquelin and teammates Julia Simon, Lou Jeanmonnot and Eric Perrot had one penalty and six spares in their Gold medal win, leaving Silver medalist Czechia 1:13.8 back, with Bronze medalist Germany 1:18.4 back.

Jacquelin, “Teammates…very impressive”

Jacquelin despite picking up his team’s only penalty was praised his teammates. “I am so lucky to have these guys and girls on the team. What they did is impressive, very impressive since the beginning of the year.”

“I was quite shaky”

As for his penalty, “I did this penalty loop. I was quite shaky. It is quite hard to be alone on the shooting range with this huge gap. Anyway, for the team it was the win. For me, I need to improve everything I learned from this shooting. I have to adjust, but I have to thank them of course.”

Czechia, with spares won their first IBU WCH mixed relay medal since Antholz 2020 when they claimed Bronze also anchored by Michal Krcmar. Germany with 11 spares last won a medal, Silver at Oestersund 2019.

Norway came back from two first leg penalties, over 2 minutes back to finish fourth, with eight additional spares, 1:21.1 back. Sweden, with a penalty and 10 spares finished fifth, 1:36.5 back after anchor Sebastian Samuelsson fell on the last loop. Switzerland with eleven spares finished sixth, 1:44.1 back.

The competitions in Lenzerheide opened with cloudy skies, +6C, and virtually no wind on the range for the 24 teams on the starting line.

Photos: IBU/Vianney Thibaut, Nordic Focus

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