In a single mixed relay where Sweden dominated the race head and shoulders in front of its Östersund crowd, the French team, made up of Fabien Claude and Camille Bened snatched third place at the wire to offer themselves a superb podium.
Last minute change of plan for the Blues relay, since Quentin Fillon-Maillet, who was initially to be associated with Camille Bened, was unwell and had to withdraw a few hours before the start of the race. He was therefore replaced by Fabien Claude who started first in this single mixed relay. An ideal start to the race where Fabien Claude is perfectly installed in a leading group made up in particular by Sweden, Norway and Germany.
For his first session, the biathlete from Epinal performed flawlessly in the prone shooting phase and came out in second position just behind Norway. On the skis, things are going pretty well, but no gap has really been created yet. For his second shooting session, Fabien Claude continued his flawless performance and once again left the shooting range in second position, this time behind Sweden who gradually seemed to be taking the measure of this race and imposing their domination.
Bened at the finish
It is to Camille Bened that Fabien Claude passes the first baton. The 25-year-old skier was at this time participating in a single mixed relay for the first time. Well in her legs, Camille Bened succeeded perfectly in her first phase of prone shooting remaining at a reasonable distance while Sweden still leads the way by imposing an increasingly sustained pace and making no mistakes on the shooting range. For her standing shooting session, Camille Bened misses a target, but instantly catches up with a pick ball and ranks fourth, ten seconds from the lead when handing over to Fabien Claude.
The Vosges continues to prove his good form by maintaining the pace. A new faultless shot allows Fabien Claude to come back within a stone’s throw of the race lead. Only, for his last round of shooting, despite a good start, he missed the last target and also missed his pick balls which forced him to take a penalty round. Once the 75m have been covered, it is Camille Bened who takes over to try to catch up with the French team.
The native of Évian-les-Bains, who leaves in fourth place, proves her good form and is gradually succeeding thanks to her skiing in grabbing seconds to get closer to the podium. While it is Sweden who flies to victory, and Norway has consolidated its second place thanks to a lead of around ten seconds, third place does not yet seem completely acquired. Germany, France and Switzerland, back up to par, can still climb onto the podium even if Germany seems a little ahead. With an almost flawless performance quickly overcome by pick balls, Camille Bened, very solid on skis, gradually returned to the German and thanks to a superb final sprint, beat her rival on the wire to offer the French Team a third place in this single mixed relay in Östersund.
