By Philip O’Connor
ANTERSELVA, Italy, Feb 18 (Reuters) – Young biathlon prodigy Oceane Michelon dominated the third leg to set France on course for a superb win in the women’s relay at the Winter Olympics on Wednesday, but it was not all plain sailing.
Camille Bened had to endure a messy first leg in which many of the favourites floundered, but the French showed their mettle once again with a calm fightback as Michelon gave them the upper hand and Julia SImon powered through the last lap to secure victory.
Michelon was part of the French relay team who won gold at last year’s World Championships, and when Lou Jeanmonnot handed over to her in third position, the 23-year-old called on that moment to quickly take a lead her team would never relinquish.
“I had my first experience of a big event last year at the World Championships, and today I was really happy to be able to be part of this relay, so I took all my chances and I just focused only on me,” she told Reuters as French fans stood in the cold and chanted her name.
“In my head I was alone, I just focused on only me. I was alone and I said to myself, don’t think, only do what you are able to do and what you have to do, and we will see in the end what happens,” Michelon said.
Such was the lead she handed over to Julia SImon for the final leg that neither Sweden, who took silver, nor bronze medallists Norway made any effort to close the gap, content to fight it out for the remaining two medals.
In the athletes’ pen, there was relief for Bened, who felt she had put her team under pressure with her first-leg performance, but in the end the French were able to claw their way back to secure the nation’s second relay gold in two days.
“It’s really insane, a gold medal in the Olympics, it’s a childhood dream. And now it’s here and I can’t understand it,” Bened told Reuters. “I need to touch the medal to understand that it’s really here, and I need to keep touching it to make sure it’s still here.”
(Reporting by Philip O’Connor, editing by Ed Osmond)
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