ANTERSELVA, Italy, Feb 17 (Reuters) - France's Eric Perrot overcame a wobble on the final shoot and a late surge from Norway's Vetle Sjaastad Christiansen to win a sensational first men's relay gold medal for his country at the Winter Olympics on Wednesday.
Christiansen did his best but could not close the gap on the last lap and had to be content with the silver medal, 9.8 seconds behind the winners. Sweden's Sebastian Samuelsson shot clean on his final visit to the range to secure bronze for his team.
The gold was France's 16th medal at this Winter Games, its greatest haul ever, and in winning this event Quentin Fillon Maillet became France's most decorated Winter Olympian with eight medals in all, five of them gold.
Each biathlete faced three laps of a 2.5-km track and two visits to the shooting range – one prone, one standing – where up to three misses could be atoned for with an extra shot before a penalty lap was incurred.
The French nearly fell out of contention following a disastrous first leg by Fabien Claude that left them almost a minute behind, but Emilien Jacquelin led the charge as they fought their way back into contention through the next two legs to give last man Perrot a shot at victory.
By the midway point it had become a three-horse race between France, Norway and Sweden but the falling snow and unpredictable breeze kept the outcome unclear until the final leg.
With Perrot, Christiansen and Samuelsson pitted against one another, the Frenchman shot clean to leave the range in the lead with the Norwegian hot on his heels, while two misses robbed Swede Samuelsson of a chance to make the top two steps of the podium.
With Christiansen cruising in to shoot beside him, Perrot missed twice on his final visit but he managed to get away first as Juergen Klopp, former coach of soccer clubs Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool, enthusiastically rang the bell to signal the final lap.
Christiansen came out hot on his heels, thundering around the first part of his last loop, but as with so many racers on the day, the altitude caught up with him and he faded towards the end, allowing Perrot to hang on for a famous French comeback victory.
"It's a moment we’ve been chasing for a long time — I was already an athlete when we were trying to achieve it," said France coach Simon Fourcade, who took part in the 2006, 2010 and 2014 Olympics as an athlete.
"We’ve done it today, a great moment, especially given how the race unfolded; it required a bit of magic, and we knew our magician (Jacquelin) was there.We call it champagne biathlon — today, we had the magnum.”
"I know my sport too well to think that anything is decided (after one leg). Four legs is long — there is time to come back," Jacquelin told French TV.
"I started this leg trying to manage my effort and on the second lap I felt it wasn’t going fast enough, so why wait?"
That level of effort proved contagious as Fillon Maillet showcased his ability to control a race before handing over to Perrot.
Norway's challenge for gold suffered on the second leg as Johan-Olav Botn struggled, throwing away a sizeable lead and opening the way for Jacquelin to catch him.
"I feel like it's three good legs and one that sticks out. I feel a responsibility (for that)," Botn said.
(Reporting by Philip O'Connor and Julien Pretot; Editing by Ken Ferris, Hugh Lawson and Clare Fallon)
