Oberhof (Germany) (AFP)

Full of nerve and at the cost of a last supersonic standing shot, the Frenchwoman Julia Simon dominated all the favorites on Sunday during the Oberhof mass start to sign the second success of her career in the Biathlon World Cup.

The biathlete from Les Saisies (24 years old), who only had a small podium to her credit this winter (3rd in the Hochfilzen pursuit, on December 13), thus offers the Bleues a first victory and a little comfort during of a complicated season and so far lived far from the outposts.

Too irregular for the moment to get involved in the fight for the big crystal globe, Simon nevertheless has real potential, allowing him to achieve big shots at times and reverse situations that seem compromised.

This is exactly what happened on this "queen race".

With three rifle faults before the last standing shot, it is indeed a small miracle that the Frenchwoman succeeded on the demanding track of the German station, dotted with many bumps.

The race then seemed to have definitively shifted to Dorothea Wierer's side but the Italian, double holder of the big crystal globe and with a good lead (around thirty seconds), faltered at the worst moment (two penalty laps), opening a breach in which Simon, only 11th, managed to rush into.

Author of a lightning passage on the shooting range, she thus emerged in the lead with Franziska Preuss before releasing the German 500 m from the finish to clinch a second success after the pursuit of Kontiolahti, on March 14, 2020.

She was finally ahead of Preuss by 3.9 seconds and Sweden's Hanna Oeberg by 11.7 seconds, while Norway's Marte Olsbu Roeiseland, 7th, retained the lead in the overall World Cup standings.

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"It was a hell of a race, I really enjoyed the pain, said Julia Simon. I don't even remember that last lap because I was in the rough and I only thought of one thing, pushing, pushing, pushing and giving it all that I had. There is relief, it is a lot of satisfaction in the prone shot and I am proud to have come to my end. gave everything up to the finish line, I didn't crash and went looking for her with the guts. "

Used to roller coasters on the circuit, Simon, who had taken only 59th place in the sprint on Thursday, now hopes to end as quickly as possible with this inconstancy which is hampering her progress.

"I had dark thoughts after the sprint but I managed to relaunch myself, she explained. I would like to have more serenity but these failed races force me to question myself continuously, it is exhausting and it sucks energy. That's what I have to work on. "

Frédéric Jean, the coach of the Bleues, is convinced that Julia Simon, "a competitor at heart", has the general classification of the World Cup "in mind" for the future, even if it is constantly necessary to have an eye.

"She is able to win other races and do things well, estimated the technician. But we will have to keep her on a leash. Next week, on the mass start of Anterselva (January 23, editor's note), she will have the red bib (leader of the specialty, editor's note), it will have to be tempered so that she does not go peanut as she can unfortunately sometimes. "

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