With his teammates, Martin Fourcade won first place at the World Championships in Italy on Saturday. A collective victory which has not been seen in France since 2001 and which the sportsman enjoys, seeing in it the reward for all the work accomplished.

INTERVIEW

The French have been smiling since Saturday and their victory at the Biathlon World Championships, in Antholz in Italy. They had been waiting nineteen years for a world crown in relay. A bet won by Quentin Fillon Maillet, Simon Desthieux, Emilien Jacquelin and of course Martin Fourcade who returned to the microphone of Europe 1 on this long-awaited victory.

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"I saw myself nineteen years ago on my sofa, at my parents' home to learn about the French relay victory. And at the time in 2001, we didn't often hear about biathlon on television. No one did not expect it and it was really a feat, "he recalls, before returning to the present and the victory of this Saturday. "We actually showed that this title was anything but a surprise, it was a fatality and that today, it was up to us to go get it because we had the best team in the world ", assures the champion who had gone through a difficult season in 2018-2019.

"It was the title we've been waiting for for 19 years together"

"For me that means a lot because we talked a lot about the last title that Martin Fourcade missed, but today it was not about that," he confides, praising the work of his teammates and those who accompanied them. "It was the title we have been waiting for for 19 years together. This super strong emotion came from that, from all those people who shared this trip, who brought their stone, who were part of this relay, who have had more or less success in recent years, and today is really the reward for all that, "he says.