French biathlete Quentin Fillon Maillet forgot to go to the penalty round. A freak mistake could have cost the win.
Finland time, on the night between Saturday and Sunday, in the biathlon world cup men’s speed race held in Salt Lake City, USA, a really confusing situation was seen.
French superstar Quentin Fillon Maillet was strongly involved in the winning battle when he came to the second, or last, shooting position.
The two-time Olympic champion missed one shot, which meant one penalty round. Soon ‘s narrator Johannes from Oikari began to doubt.
– Did he go around the penalty round that quickly, that makes a difference to Sebastian Samuelsson is 22 seconds? He did miss one though.
Commentator Ville Kotikumpu noticed that the Frenchman was 15 seconds ahead of Samuelsson when he came to the shooting range.
– I guess he didn’t just miss the penalty round? This is just a midnight thought, Oikarinen pondered.
When Fillon Maillet came to the finish line, he was slapped with a considerable time penalty, which dropped him to 31st place in the final results. He had really forgotten to go around the penalty circle.
– Can not be true! He would have gone to the bow or at least close to it, Oikarinen was amazed.
Short circuit
After the race, the athlete himself couldn’t help but wonder.
It is about an experienced 31-year-old athlete.
– It was a big mistake. I don’t understand what happened, he said of SVT by.
He said he did realize his mistake, but he had some sort of mental breakdown.
– It was just empty, he said.
SVT expert, former biathlete Bjorn Ferry reflected that if Fillon Maillet had gone around the penalty circle normally, he could have won the race by a narrow margin. The winner was separated by one minute and 35 seconds.
– It is clear that this must feel really frustrating, Ferry commented.
However, in French terms, the sprint race was successful, because Eric Perrot and Emilien Jacquelin grabbed a double win.
However, Perrot, who won the first individual competition of his career at the World Cup, was sorry for his teammate.
– It was a real shame for him. He worked hard and it would have been fun to get a treble for the French.
Norway was third in the race Johan-Olav Botn.
Fillon Maillet won two team golds at the recently held World Championships in Nove Mesto.
Tero Seppälä was 34th (+1.39.9) as the best Finn. Heikki Laitinen finished in 52nd place (+2.03.8), Otto Invenius ranked 61 (+2.16.7), and Jaakko Ranta was 67th (+2.28.2).
Biathlon World Cup continues on Sunday in Soldier Hollow, USA. The men’s pursuit starts at 19:45, broadcast on TV2 and Areena.