Biathlon: Johannes Boe concludes the season with a victory and one more small globe, Jacquelin third

Certain since the day before of winning a fifth big crystal globe of world No.1, the Norwegian Johannes Boe concluded the biathlon season with one more victory in the last mass start in Canmore, Canada, on Sunday.

Short sleeves, shorts version jumpsuit for Sturla Laegreid, thermometer above fifteen degrees: there was an air of vacation ahead of time on Sunday afternoon in the Canadian mountains. Boe did not fall into the trap, as he signed a sprint-pursuit-mass start hat-trick to end the season.

“It’s the perfect end to a perfect season,” summed up the recent three-time world champion (pursuit, individual and mass start). His eighth success of the winter in 21 individual World Cup races, with a 19 out of 20 shooting, gives him the added bonus of the small mass start globe, at the expense of his compatriot Johannes Dale-Skjevdal, who was second on Sunday in 44 sec 5/10th, after two faults. Third at 1 min 07 sec 2/10th after three missed targets, Emilien Jacquelin took his third podium in five races. Proof of his good form at the end of winter, he did not fall out of the top 4 during the last two stages of the season.

Best Frenchman in the general classification, he finished sixth and blocked the road to a Norwegian sextuplet. Quentin Fillon-Maillet ranked seventh in the mass start after three faults behind the rifle, at 1 min 31 sec 4/10th, Fabien Claude 16th (4 faults, 2:32.2) and the young Eric Perrot 20th (5 faults , 3:01.2).

QFM ends the winter ranked 16th in the world, Perrot close to the top 10. For Johannes Boe, this is his 85th individual victory in all competitions (72 in the World Cup, 3 in the Olympic Games and 10 in the Worlds), now two better than Martin Fourcade. And his specialty globe count climbs to twelve (26 for Fourcade). In his sights now? The 95 record successes of his illustrious compatriot Ole Einar Bjoerndalen. “Maybe next season,” Boe is already imagining.