The French star, with clean shooting, the second fastest ski time of the day and the victory admitted that the only thing better might have been, “the fastest ski time. My main goal today was to do a great sprint, because I wanted to do something great since the beginning of the season. 10-out-of-10 was the main thing and the great ski time is really good.”
She achieved her first sprint win of the season with the desire “to be a bit more aggressive than in Ruhpolding in shooting. I think I was in a defensive mood there. My coach told me to attack and I think it worked.”
As for Antholz’s 1600-meter altitude, “We trained a lot on altitude this summer. This is something we are kind of used to, because it is normal for us to go to training camps at altitude.”
Germany’s Selina Grotian, also shooting clean, picked up the second-career podium in second place, 7.2 seconds back. Teammate Franziska Preuss also shot clean in third place, 16.7 seconds back.
The home team’s Dorothea Wierer in her final home stadium World Cup Sprint finished fourth, with one penalty, 28 seconds back. “Maybe one miss too many but I can be happy. (After being sick during the holidays), now I am feeling better and better, but you have to be clean on the shooting range or you have no chance because there are so many strong girls.”
Jeanmonnot’s teammates Julia Simon, with a penalty and clean-shooting Jeanne Richard, finished fifth and sixth, 38 and 40.9 seconds back, respectively.
The women were first to try the reimagined Südtirol Arena in competition on this cloudy, almost windless 4-degree afternoon. Testing the renovated shooting range, Justine Braisaz-Bouchet cleaned prone, with Wierer 6 seconds back. Jeanmonnot topped her teammate by .6 seconds. Simon made it a French 1-2-3 in prone Later starter Grotian’s podium run started by cleaning prone, but 10 seconds back.
Richard closed her five standing targets for the initial top spot until Preuss shot fast and clean, going a dozen seconds up. Wierer missed a shot, remaining in the mix, a few seconds back. Focused Jeanmonnot closed her standing targets easily for a whopping 21-second lead. Grotian matched with a perfect standing stage, going into the last loop second.
Jeanmonnot flew around the last loop for the victory while Grotian pipped the Yellow Bib for second place.
Photos: IBU/Yevenko, Nordic Focus