Already untouchable the day before in the sprint, the double Olympic champion gave a real demonstration, a performance he has become accustomed to this season.

At the rate at which he succeeds, the Jura player could well be crowned at the next stage of the World Cup, from Thursday to Sunday in Otepaa (Estonia).

With 174 points ahead of his runner-up Emilien Jacquelin, or 144 if we subtract the two worst results of the biathletes as required by the regulations to establish the final general classification, QFM has already put an end to the suspense for a long time and should, except cataclysm, becoming the fourth Frenchman to win the big crystal globe after Patrice Bailly-Salins (1994), Raphaël Poirée (2000, 2001, 2002, 2004) and Martin Fourcade (from 2012 to 2018).

Which would be the logical epilogue to an exceptional 2021-2022 exercise, marked by its historic harvest at the Beijing Olympics (5 medals, two in gold, three in silver).

First little globe

On the demanding Kontiolahti track, Fillon Maillet, who started 18 seconds ahead of his first pursuer, was almost never worried.

Only Emilien Jacquelin tried to disrupt his forward march, managing to catch up with him halfway after a huge effort.

But the double world champion in the specialty fell on stronger than him and ended up cracking from the first standing shot, leaving his teammate, still as unfazed behind the rifle (19/20), soaring to a 7th victory in the World Cup this season.

While waiting to lift the big crystal globe, Fillon Maillet took the opportunity to unsurprisingly win the small pursuit globe, an event in which he is simply unbeatable (six successes in the last six races, including the pursuit of the Olympic Games ).

"I'm pretty proud of my chase stats," he said. small globe while there is still a pursuit to be disputed. I did not think about it at all. I often turned around the classifications by discipline, with 2nd or 3rd places, but finally I can touch the crystal.

"No matter what happens, I'm going to bring home some crystal and hopefully there will be more orbs to pick up, especially the big one, which is the one I really hope to bring back." , he added.

It shouldn't take too long.

© 2022 AFP