Sunday, February 13, 2022

Quentin Fillon Maillet wins second gold in men's pursuit

Embed from Getty Images

Quentin Fillon Maillet broke apart Norway from doubling up on the podium at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Sunday night. The French biathlete took control of the lead and took the gold in the men’s 12.5km pursuit at the Zhangjiakou National Biathlon Centre. Tarjei Boe came in for the silver medal and ROC’s Eduard Latypov came in behind him for the bronze. 

The Boe brothers had a chance to fight it out for the gold in the race but would have Fillon Maillet in the mix between them. The other 57 who qualified would run a five-lap race around the 2.5km course. 


J.T. Boe had a 26-second lead to start out in front of the Frenchman, who had a 13 second lead over Tarjei Boe, who left third. Tsvetkov was two seconds in fourth, with the rest of the pack close in tow. J.T. Boe came into the range with a 36-second lead but had to battle the windy conditions that remained. The 28-year-old nailed all five shots just as Fillon Maillet arrived. The French biathlete was 41 seconds back but went clean on his visit. Many of the others that came in missed at least once, but taking third was Latypov, sitting 40 seconds back of the Frenchman. 


In the second shoot, J.T. Boe was back for his second prone position, looking calm and comfortable. He missed two in a row and made three, with Fillon Maillet arriving as the Norwegian was in the penalty look. The Frenchman had a struggle with his rifle but managed to nail all five and sit 12 seconds back. Latypov opened the gap behind him while he sat comfortably in third 14 seconds ahead of fourth. 


J.T. Boe was trying to get the gap to rewiden on Fillon Maillet but only made it to 20 seconds. Tarjei Boe was a minute behind his brother, in the hopes that he could get lucky with others in front of him missing. J.T. Boe was in for the first of two standing shots and missed three while Fillon Maillet and Latypov both went clean. The Frenchman and ROC athlete took first and second by ten seconds while Lukas Hofer gained third, with Tarjei Boe close behind. J.T. Boe dropped to fifth, trailing his brother by less than ten seconds.


With the last shoot left, Fillon Maillet and Latypov were in together with no misses between them. The Frenchman came out clean while the ROC athlete missed one to open the door for Hofer and Tarjei Boe. The two were behind Latypov by three seconds, while J.T. Boe took himself out of the competition after two more missed targets. Tarjei Boe managed to get ahead of Latypov and left him behind with a growing gap. 


At the finish line, it was the French biathlete coming in with a time of 39:07.5, with Tarjei Boe 28.6 seconds back. 



No comments:

Post a Comment