Winner of the mass start in Ruhpolding, Julia Simon is the new nugget of French biathlon

Europe 1 with AFP 7:47 p.m., January 15, 2023

Julia Simon is decidedly unstoppable.

The 26-year-old Frenchwoman, yellow bib for more than a month, carried out the best possible accounting operation by winning Sunday during the mass start in Ruhpolding in Germany, since her rival number 1 in the general classification, the Swedish Elvira Oeberg , ill, did not start the race.

So much so that the gap is widening in favor of Simon: with 756 points, she now has a lead of 141 over Oeberg (615), knowing that a victory brings in 90 points.

"It is certain that the more the races pass and the more I would like to be able to dream" of a big globe, admits the Savoyard, who is however reluctant to openly make it a goal.

"It's a great pride to wear the yellow bib, every little point I can take, I take it with great pleasure. But it's only January, there's still a lot to do, there are the World Championships (February 8-19 in Oberhof)… I'm not going to get carried away at all now", she tempers.

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Chevalier-Bouchet 3rd

In the Bavarian rain on Sunday afternoon, Simon won despite a 17/20 in shooting and was not the only Frenchwoman to get on the podium, since Anaïs Chevalier-Bouchet finished third, 6 sec 7/ 10th, after a single missed target.

The Italian Lisa Vittozzi, also a fault, came between them, 2 seconds 6/10ths from Simon.

In the last lap, transformed into a three-way match with Vittozzi and Chevalier-Bouchet, Simon, the best ski timer, was able to make the difference on the track.

"It was a great moment to live from the inside, she enthuses. I had a blast, even if there are perhaps a few too many mistakes in shooting for my taste."

Her new regularity is obvious: here she is on a series of six consecutive individual podiums.

In total, she has climbed to the podium in nine of the twelve individual races contested since the start of the season.

Nine remain to run by mid-March - excluding Worlds (four more).

This is ultimately his greatest satisfaction.

"My goal (at the start of the season) was not to be so much in the general classification, it was really to find this consistency. I found it and it's cool, appreciates Simon. It's nice to to see that when I manage to put things in place, I'm on the podium. Now, it's an eternal restart."

This mass start success is her first in 2023. She had obtained her first two victories of the winter in December, in Kontiolahti (Finland) and Hochfilzen (Austria), each time in pursuit.

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Top 5 for Jacquelin

Chevalier-Bouchet, who has made the Worlds in just over three weeks her main objective of the season, had already taken third place in the first mass start of the winter, in Grand-Bornand in mid-December.

"A race like that is still good for the head, it's true, but that's not my goal," recalls the 2022 Olympic silver medalist in the individual.

Johannes Boe, decidedly untouchable, signed his ninth individual victory of the winter, his fourth in as many races in 2023, after the men's mass start.

Ordinary 17 out of 20 behind the rifle but in breathtaking form on skis, he led another Norwegian hat-trick, 19 sec 3/10ths ahead of Vetle Christiansen and 35 sec 3/10ths ahead of Sturla Laegreid, two faults each.

In the general classification, Boe is in the lead with 959 points, 174 points ahead of his closest pursuer, Laegreid.

The best Frenchman of the day is Emilien Jacquelin, fifth at 49 sec 7/10th with two missed targets.

Encouraging for his return to the World Cup after his rout which had put his morale to zero the previous week in Pokljuka (Slovenia).

Quentin Fillon Maillet, too imprecise in shooting with four faults, only ranked 16th (+1:31.2).

Fabien Claude (3 faults, +1:18.1) narrowly made his way into the top 10.