Fillon Maillet Anchors French Mixed Relay Triumph

French anchor Quentin Fillon Maillet cleaned his standing stage with six shots in this afternoon’s Holmenkollen 4 X 6 km Mixed Relay as his rivals struggled with spare rounds, sealing a 1:30:48.6 win in the closing competition of a weather-battered weekend in Oslo. The French foursome of Fillon Maillet, Fabien Claude, Sophie Chauveau, and Julia Simon only needed six spare rounds on a windy day, winning their second mixed relay of the season.

Sweden Wins Last Loop Battle

Sweden’ Martin Ponsiluoma battled the home team’s Johannes Thingnes Boe in the last loop, pulling away in the final 400 meters to finish second, 32.2 seconds back, using eight spare rounds. Norway’s Boe brothers brought their team from 1:28 back after the women’s legs to finish third, 35.9 seconds back, with a penalty and ten spare rounds.

Italy, leading going into the last standing stage fell to fourth place, 46.4 seconds back with anchor Tomasso Giacomel struggling in the last kilometer after skiing two penalty loops. Germany, with ten spares finished fifth, 59.4 seconds back. Slovenia, with one penalty and nine spares finished sixth, 2:40.1 back. Thirteen teams were lapped, with only ten teams finishing all four legs.

Strong French Start

The wind continued to whip and the rain continued in the late afternoon. A strong leg by Julia Simon gave second leg Chauveau a 31-second lead over Austria at the first exchange followed by Elvira Oeberg 35 seconds back and Ida Lien 57 seconds back after a Tandrevold penalty.

Chauveau with a spare in prone and a perfect standing, maintained the lead tagging Claude 33 seconds ahead of Jesper Nelin and Lukas Hofer with Tarjei at 1:17.

French Lead Dwindles

Claude’s six prone shots maintained the lead. Nelin closed to 24 seconds with a five-shot stage. Tarjei cleaned, remaining 1:10 back. Nelin’s two spares and Hofer’s perfect standing dropped the gap to 11 seconds, with Nelin at 28 and Tarjei 54 seconds back.

Fillon Maillet started18 seconds ahead of Giacomel, 36 before Ponsiluoma and 52 before JT took the tag. The French star used a spare in prone; the Italian closed the gap to 6 seconds with Ponsiluoma 24 seconds back and JT at 43.

BMW IBU World Cup 7 Oslo Holmenkollen 4 X 6 km Mixed Relay

Six Shots and Victory

Fillon Maillet sealed the win with a six-shot standing stage. The chasers missed shots; Ponsiluoma and JT standing 2 seconds behind the Italian, passing him just before the stadium. Ponsiluoma then powered past JT on the shooting range loop for second place.

Photos: IBU/Dmytro Yevenko, Christian Manzoni