France Took Men’s Relay, Finland Delightfully 5th: “It was nearly perfect”

The French Fabien Claude, Quentin Fillon Maillet, Eric Perrot and Emilien Jacquelin cleared the race with two spare rounds.

Norway took the second place, 25,8 seconds behind. Sweden placed third.

France was close to becoming the first ever team to clear Men’s Relay without a single missed shot. Jacquelin had to use two spares in standing, so the historical event did not take place at Kontiolahti.

- It was nearly perfect. Maybe the best relay we have ever done. I was already thinking about that (clean shooting) when I started, thinking, I will try to stay focused and not think about that. After the prone shooting, I tried to stay focused. I thought we could do that. In standing, I was shaking a lot, but did the best I could, Jacquelin repeated the tense situation.

“Good reward for us”

A delightful result for the home crowd was Finland’s successful 5th place with four spares.

The host country quartet consisted of Jaakko Ranta, Olli Hiidensalo, Tero Seppala and Otto Invenius.

- We did really well as a team on both the shooting range and the track. It became a good reward for us, said Hiidensalo.

Jaakko Ranta opened his World Cup season.

- A small blemish (one spare round) in prone, but I’m very satisfied with the shooting. I’m happy I brought the team to the exchange less than a minute behind the leader. It was the minimum requirement for me, said Ranta.

Seppala, glad about the team’s performance, shot well and cleaned both stages.

- Today I succeeded in standing, too (compared to yesterday). The conditions were easier, and the man was more determined. I took a better position and did well, said Seppala whose performance on the track was solid as well.

Invenius got to finish the relay with a successful performance, which culminated with a clean standing stage.

- Top performance. This was very important (for us as a team) at the beginning of the season. This kind of top relay makes you smile, Invenius rejoiced at the start for the men’s team.

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Original text in Finnish: Heidi Lehikoinen
Translation into English: Hanna Sairanen