𝙋𝙤𝙠𝙡𝙟𝙪𝙠𝙖 𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙡𝙙 𝘾𝙪𝙥

Two Belgian athletes competed in the women’s pursuit race. Maya Cloetens, who made her World Cup debut with a 43rd place in the sprint race, and Lotte Lie, who finished 53rd in the sprint race, were also part of the team. Both of them started with a miss, but the second shot was clear. However, Lotte had 1 miss in the first standing stage and Maya had to shoot twice. In the last shooting both were clear again. In the end both missed the World Cup points (40 best get World Cup points) Lotte was 41st and Maya 42nd.

In the men’s pursuit Florent Claude started 18th. He also started with 2 misses in the first shooting and 1 miss in the second shooting, but then stayed clear in the two standing shootings. Due to his excellent run time in the last two rounds he finished 23rd.

On Sunday the eagerly awaited mixed relay took place. Since 2006, when Thorsten and Pascal Langer as well as the two Santer sisters competed, Belgium had not been able to present a mixed relay in the World Cup. The race went very well from the beginning. Florent Claude shot 0 faults at the start and left the shooting range in third place behind Norway and France. In the 2nd shooting he also remained faultless and went into the last round in second place behind his brother Fabien. On the track he lost a few places and handed over to Thierry Langer with a gap of 36 seconds in fifth position. Thierry was able to leave the shooting range in sixth place, 24 seconds behind, with a very fast first shooting without any mistakes. But then he made a small mistake in the downhill and crashed. At the shooting range he lost a lot of time because they had to give him a new magazine. Nevertheless, he kept his nerve and shot again without any mistakes. Of course, all this cost him a lot of time and he handed over to Maya Cloetens in 21st place, 2:46 minutes behind. Maya needed a reload at the first shooting, but could already make up 3 places. With a reload at the second shooting and a very good running time she could hand over to Lotte Lie in 14th position. Lotte was as usual very strong at the shooting range. Both times she shot very fast without any mistakes and was able to move up to 10th place in the relay. It’s hard to imagine what the result would have been without Thierry’s fall. Nevertheless the best result of a Belgian relay team in the World Cup.

𝙄𝘽𝙐 𝘾𝙐𝙋 𝙞𝙣 𝙊𝙨𝙧𝙗𝙡𝙞𝙚

Here the sprint races of the women (7.5 km) and men (10 km) took place.
Rieke de Maeyer finished 60th in the women’s race, with 3 Italians in the top 5. Only 2 Norwegians were able to get in between.
In the men’s race Cesar Beauvais finished 34th with only 1 miss. Marek Mackels had 5 shooting mistakes (2-3) and finished on 76th place among 97 participants.
Also in the IBU CUP there was a very good result in the single mixed relay on the last day in Osrblie. Cesar Beauvais and Rieke De Maeyer reached 13th place among 24 teams. 🖤💛❤️

📷 VOIGT Fotografie & Design