Martin Fourcade, magnificent in Kontiolahti (Fin)!  

15/Mar/2010

First World Cup victory for the French biathlete!
After a silver medal in the Olympic mass-start two weeks ago, and a 3rd place on Saturday’s Sprint, the younger of the brothers Fourcade clinches at 21 years the first victory of  his career on the World cup tour.
Indeed, he crossed the finish line of the Pursuit in first position yesterday in Kontiolahti.
For his second complete season on the World cup, the French champion has carried out a spectacular performance here and thus takes the 6th place in the Overall World Cup standings by only 109 points behind the leader!
Note that it still remains 5 individual competitions before the closing of this 2010 World cup season… So, everything stays possible for the Catalan!
"What I made is rather not badly, but this is sport. It is necessary to remain humble cause one day, you are in top, the following day, you are in the bottom. You have to work everyday on you and your performance.”
“Nothing is impossible, but that will be very complicated. To win the Globe is not my objective: I will try to make my best, all that comes from now on is only bonus. At the beginning of season, my objective was to enter the 15!”

A 2&3 podium with P.Piller Cottrer and V. Vittoz in the 50 km F at Oslo! 

15/Mar/2010

AK. Saarinen, 2nd in the Sprint C at Drammen!

Saturday in Oslo, our skiers offered us a splendid race on the 50 km Free. Italian Pietro Piller Cottrer and French Vincent Vittoz clinched 2nd and 3rd places of the competition after a great fight!
In the lead at the 45th kilometer, Vincent Vittoz had to give way his position in front of the attack Pietro Piller Cottrer and of Norwegian Petter Northug. He takes finally the 3rd place of this stage.
After a splendid race and despite all his efforts, Pietro, in the fight for the first place, had to yield the victory in the finish sprint to Petter Northug and climbed the 2nd step of the podium!
A great 2 & 3 podium for Rossignol X-ium package!
Pietro Piller Cottrer (Ita) :
“I won on Holmenkollen 13 years ago so I know how does it feel. I really wanted to live this feeling again. I was at the beginning skiing in the chasing group and was staying a bit behind, At that time I thought the race was over for me. But after change of my skis I felt better and better and my strength increased. When I caught Maurice it gave me extra kick and energy I am happy to be second. I wish Petter to win again here in thirteen years.encore plus d’énergie pour me battre. Je suis vraiment ravi de cette 2ème place.”
Vincent Vittoz (Fra) :
"Before the competition, we didn’t speak about strategy with the team but we knew that we will have no chance for a podium in case of slow race. That’s why we started the competition very fast. That could seem crazy but it worked well. We had all very good skis and without a good material it’s impossible to make good result here. For that, I want to thank all my staff.”

Thursday, Finn Aino Kaisa Saarinen grabbed her 6th individual podium of the season by taking the 2nd place in Sprint Classical held in Drammen (Nor).
Note that she takes 3rd place in the Overall World cup standings with 999 points.
Aino Kaisa Saarinen (Fin):
“I’m happy with my second place. After my sickness last week it is a nice comeback. I hope I will be strong until the end of the season to have a good overall World Cup ranking. “

First individual Olympic medal for Aino Kaisa Saarinen!  

28/Feb/2010

After the bronze in the relay with the Finnish team last Thursday, Aino Kaisa Saarinen grabs on Friday a second medal on theses Olympics at Vancouver, by taking the 3rd place of the 30 km classical! A first individual Olympic medal for this 31 year old skier who in spite of the hard conditions (rain and difficulty of the track) succeeded in being on the podium!
In the leading group in the 20 first kilometres, Aino Kaisa lost time changing the skis and took thus the 7th position. But she found enough energy in the last kilometres to fight against her competitors and go ahead of German Elvi Sachencbacher to insure the 3rd place of this competition!