Frenchmen Julia Simon and Fabien Claude won the traditional end-of-year mixed pairs biathlon competition (World Team Challenge) in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, at the home stadium of the Schalke football club.
The World Team Challenge is divided into two parts show-a competition in which the races take place first in a joint start race and then in a pursuit race. Each error means a 75 meter penalty circle. This year the mixed pairs from Germany (with two teams – ed.), Norway, France, Austria, Czech Republic, Belgium, Slovenia, Ukraine and Switzerland were competing.
The French pair Julia Simon and Fabien Claude took a lead of almost a minute in the race from the joint start. The Frenchman completed four penalty laps in two and beat the second-placed Germans Hanna Kebinger and Benedikt Doll (4) by 50.5 seconds. The Norwegians Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold and Sturla Holm Lägreid ranked third (5; +1.00.7).
In the chase, Simon and Claude did not disappoint. The French pair ran three penalty laps together and their winning time was 34:43.5. Tandrevold and Lägreid follow (3; +57.5), who corrected a small mistake. On the last step of the podium were the Slovenians Polona Klemencic and Jakov Fak (2; +1.08.2).
ANOTHER TIME
Julia Simon and Fabien Claude defend their title at the World Team Challenge auf Schalke! ✨
Tandrevold/Laegreid and Klemencic/Fak complete the podium!
Yevenko/IBU #BiathlononSchalke #WTC2023 pic.twitter.com/MXYi6iK358
— International Biathlon Union (@biathlonworld) December 28, 2023
2023-12-28 20:36:00
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