Quentin Fillon Maillet, 9 out of 10 on the shooting range like Johannes Boe, ranked ninth at 1 min 08 sec 9/10th behind the Norwegian.

He is narrowly the best Frenchman of the day, for a tenth, ahead of Antonin Guigonnat, tenth thanks to a clear round behind the rifle.

Customary of the roller coaster, Emilien Jacquelin fell back into his failings: with three standing shooting faults, four in total, he was relegated to 36th place, more than 2 min 30 sec from the head.

It is an impossible mission which thus awaits the double world champion in pursuit title on Sunday - if he does not give up by then to take the start of the race.

At the foot of a challenge never before taken up in biathlon, even by Ole Einar Bjoerndalen or Martin Fourcade, namely winning the four individual events in the same edition of the World Championships, Johannes Boe (29), by his own admission "quite lucky" in shooting, passed the first stage.

"With the fog, where we arrived, we couldn't see the stadium," said the youngest of the Boe brothers, whom the capricious weather characteristic of Oberhof also prevented from following the race of his eldest.

"I tried but I couldn't see the (giant) screen."

"drunk" QFM

His record now shows five individual world titles, fourteen in total.

French biathlete Quentin Fillon Maillet, during the Worlds sprint in Oberhof, February 11, 2023 © Christof STACHE / AFP

Sunday afternoon, he will set off for the pursuit with fifteen seconds ahead of Tarjei, impeccable on the shooting range on Saturday, and forty on Laegreid (1 fault).

Obviously a favorite given his decidedly dazzling form on skis.

Silver at 34, "it tastes like a victory", appreciates Tarjei Boe, who had already shared the Olympic sprint podium with his caddie a year ago, Johannes in gold, him in bronze.

And Fillon Maillet between the two.

"This time, there is no French between us two," he smiled.

QFM, he drew up a "rather negative hot balance sheet".

“I'm drunk, let go of the five-time Olympic medalist in 2022 and holder of the big crystal globe. “I remain placed (for the pursuit), but I expect so much more from myself that there is frustration.

Standing up, I'm making a little mistake that's costing me so much."

"Like my start to the season, it's not bad, but not good," sums up Fillon Maillet, who climbed on a single podium this winter and who continues to suffer on the track.

"I'm not going to get back in shape overnight, he knows. But I will fight until the end. My strategy (for the pursuit) is 20 out of 20 (shooting) with good ski management ."

He will have a hard time facing the Norwegian armada, which, beyond the podium, has monopolized five of the first six places in the sprint.

Only the Ukrainian Dmytro Pidruchnyi (5th) managed to slip into the middle, between Johannes Dale and Vetle Christiansen.

© 2023 AFP