Big Wins for Oceane Michelon; Seventh Blink Title for Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen
Biathlon returned this evening at the Blinkfestivalen in Sandnes, Norway with Oceane Michelon’s star shining brightly. The Olympic Mass Start Champion first blazed to victory in the women’s shooting duel. later with 19-of-20 shooting won the super sprint in 15:12.4, leaving teammate Julia Simon 16 seconds back. Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen then blasted the last hundred meters winning the men’s super sprint for his seventh career victory at Blink.
Michelon, pleased with her two wins admitted her shape was, “Really good; better than I was thinking. It was a really good. I am really happy. I was focused on my job, to follow all my bullets. I did that and am really happy about that.”
Second place Simon added, “It felt good, because it is hard to put a bib on again. I came here with some big goals on ski technique, and it was quite okay. There were some problems on the shooting range…but November is a long time away.”
Christiansen, who came out on top in a bunch sprint with Perrot, Emilien Claude and Oscar Lombardot was worried about his French rivals. “I had to fight for it today. It was a struggle in the last round. I was a little afraid they would use tactics against me.”
Ensuring the biggest names lined up for the super sprint, Sturla Holm Laegreid, Johannes Dale-Skjevdal, Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen, Martin Uldal, Johan-Olav Smoerdal Botn, Einar Hedegart and Eric Perrot as well as Julia Simon Oceane Michelon, Justine Braisaz-Bouchet, Karoline Offigstad Knotten, Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold, Marthe Krakstad Johansen, and Elvira Oeberg received wild card entries into that competition.
Shooting Duel Finale: Sivert Bjoerndalen Tops Michelon
Friday opened with the shooting duel. The French women dominated with all five moving to the final while last year’s champion Martin Uldal and Sturla Holm Laegreid led the men. Oceane Michelon after dominating the semifinal, went 5-for 5 very quickly to take the women’s title. Surprising Sivert Bjoerndalen (Ole Einar’s nephew) beat Laegreid with five very fast shots, setting up the super finale with Michelon. The Norwegian responded with an even faster five perfect shots, finishing before the French Olympic Champion closed her third target. Michelon called Bjoerndalen’s victory, “Brilliant; I just have to say, ‘Bravo!’ This was hard; my legs were shaking.”
Second win for Michelon
A couple of hours after the shooting duel, Michelon and Simon went head-to-head in the super sprint. Both cleaned the first prone, Simon fell 9 seconds back with a single penalty in the second bout, rebounding by the first standing. However, Michelon went to 15-for-15 while Simon missed twice. The leader shot alone in the last standing, taking a single penalty. Simon cleaned and pushed hard hard in the last loop, finishing second, 2.7 seconds ahead of third place Marthe Krakstad Johansen.
Christiansen Sprints to Victory
Perrot led out of the first prone after shooting clean with Christiansen fourth. Perrot, Laegreid, Uldal and Christiansen all cleaned the second prone, going out within a second. Perrot cleaned the first standing, as Christiansen missed again in fourth position, 8 seconds back. Perrot, Christiansen, and Emilien Claude all cleaned the last standing going into the last loop together. Coming down the final straightaway, Christiansen found an extra gear, getting a 13:44.7 win, .4 and .6 seconds in front of Perrot and Claude.
Photos: IBU/Christian Manzoni, Nordic Focus
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