ANTERSELVA, ITALY, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Quentin Fillon Maillet of France hit all 10 of his shots and blazed through the final lap to win gold in the men's 10km sprint at the Milano Cortina Games on Friday in a time of 22 minutes 53.1 seconds.
Norway's Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen powered through the last stretch to snatch the silver medal from compatriot Sturla Holm Laegreid, who had to be content with his second bronze medal of the Games following his third-place finish in the men's individual race.
France were expected to make a strong challenge in Friday's race, but almost nobody expected Fillon Maillet, who has struggled with his prone shooting recently, to emerge victorious with an imperious performance.
"When he passed his prone shooting with zero mistakes, for me, it was like he won it almost there," French coach Simon Fourcade told Reuters.
First out of the top-seeded racers, Fillon Maillet threw the gauntlet down early with slick skiing and precise shooting as the 33-year-old set a standard his rivals could not match, and he left them to a dog-fight for the other podium positions as he collected the fourth Olympic gold of his career.
Fellow Frenchman Emilien Jacquelin got involved with a rapid-fire final series when he took only 16.8 seconds to hit all five of his targets in the final standing shoot, but even a frenetic final lap could not get him among the medals.
Instead it was left to the Norwegians to battle it out as Laegreid, the centre of a media storm earlier in the week after admitting to cheating on his ex-girlfriend in a post-race interview, shot perfectly and turned on the afterburners to put himself provisionally into the silver-medal position.
He was bumped out of that spot, however, by Sjaastad Christiansen who expended every ounce of energy he had to cross the line 2.2 seconds ahead of his compatriot and 13.7 seconds behind Fillon Maillet.
"It's huge again. The emotions are different from a face-to-face race because when I cross the line, I'm still not sure of anything and it gradually sinks in," Fillon Maillet told French TV.
"It's huge, I dedicate this result to my partner because we're expecting a baby - I want to announce it today."
The post-race responses were very different to the men's individual race when Laegreid made his confession, and though he missed out on the silver medal to his compatriot, he said he had no regrets this time.
"For me, silver or bronze, it's the same, and just to share the experience with Vetle is huge, I was just incredibly happy for him," Laegreid told Reuters.
(Reporting by Philip O'Connor; additional reporting by Vincent Daheron; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Toby Davis)
