Fillon Maillet wins individual biathlon gold at Olympics

• Published date: 08 February 2022
• Publication title: The China Post

Quentin Fillon Maillet filled in quite nicely for Martin Fourcade at the Beijing Olympics.

The Frenchman won the the 20-kilometer individual biathlon race on Tuesday, adding a gold medal to the silver he won in the mixed relay over the weekend.

Fourcade, a five-time Olympic champion from France, retired from the sport in 2020. Norwegian biathlete Johannes Tingnes Boe took over as the top competitor on the World Cup circuit after Fourcade, but Fillon Maillet has been the one to beat this season.

'Maybe it looked easy but it was so hard today,' Fillon Maillet said. 'With two misses in the shooting I never expected the victory. Maybe the podium. It was amazing.'

Fillon Maillet has 10 World Cup podium finishes this season, half of them on the top step, to lead the World Cup standings.

On Tuesday, he missed two of 20 targets and finished the race in 48 minutes, 47.4 seconds.

Anton Smolski of Belarus shot clean - hitting all 20 targets - and came in 14.8 seconds behind the Frenchman.

Boe, the defending individual Olympic champion, also missed two targets and earned the bronze medal, 31.1 seconds behind Fillon Maillet. He had outsprinted the Frenchman in the mixed relay Saturday to secure gold.

Boe and Russian biathlete Maxim Tsvetkov raced most of the course together, heading out with bib Nos. 1 and 2, but Tsvetkov missed his...