Biathlon · International
Quentin Fillon Maillet leads French podium sweep in Oberhof sprint
Fillon Maillet, Fabien Claude and Emilien Jacquelin filled all three podium places in the men's 10 km sprint on 10 January.
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France fills the podium
Quentin Fillon Maillet ended a lengthy wait for a Biathlon World Cup victory by leading a French sweep of the men's sprint podium in Oberhof on 10 January 2025. Fabien Claude finished second and Emilien Jacquelin third, turning the 10 km competition into a collective result for France as well as a personal revival for the winner. Fillon Maillet had not won on the circuit since the Otepaa sprint in 2022. His return depended on accurate shooting: he hit all ten targets and took control after the prone stage. Claude also shot clean, while Jacquelin absorbed one standing penalty. The weather was less punishing than in the previous day's women's sprint, with temperatures below freezing and moderate wind, but the range still demanded careful execution.
The final results confirm the margins
The official final table gives Fillon Maillet a winning time of 23:36.2. Claude followed in 23:51.1, 14.9 seconds back, and Jacquelin completed the sweep in 23:58.3, 22.1 seconds behind. Dmytro Pidruchnyi finished fourth at 28.8 seconds after matching the winner's clean shooting. Norway's Martin Uldal was fifth, only six tenths behind Pidruchnyi, and Sturla Holm Laegreid finished sixth. Both Norwegians had one miss. The remaining top-ten places went to Niklas Hartweg, Emilien Claude, Campbell Wright and Eric Perrot. France thus placed five athletes inside the first ten. The leading three were separated by just over 22 seconds, which gave the French team a strong numerical position for the pursuit while leaving several rivals close enough to challenge through superior shooting. Johannes Thingnes Boe, pictured at the Oberhof range, placed 13th and would start the following day's pursuit from that position.
A tight field left opportunities for the pursuit
Finland's best finisher was Tero Seppala in 28th, about a minute and a half behind the winner. The Finnish federation's account explains why his position carried more promise than the ranking alone might suggest. Seppala hit all five prone targets, missed once in standing and felt his range work had been solid. His skiing was less fluent after illness had disrupted the holiday training period, and he would have welcomed more opportunities to follow other racers. Even so, he considered the distance to the front manageable for a pursuit. The other Finnish starters had a tougher afternoon: Arttu Heikkinen was 74th, Jaakko Ranta 76th, Heikki Laitinen 79th and Otto Invenius 83rd. Their accounts described a mixture of shooting errors, difficult ski speed and equipment choices. Those differences underline how France's two clean-shooting leaders built their advantage in a field where execution varied widely.
The sweep had a place in French biathlon history
In its January review, the IBU identified this as France's third World Cup podium sweep, following the Ostersund individual in 2019 and Kontiolahti pursuit in 2020. Fillon Maillet took part in all three. The Oberhof win was his 17th career victory, bringing him level with Frank Ullrich in seventh place on the federation's historical wins list. The result consequently combined renewed individual form with a rare national achievement.
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