France's Perrot powers to victory in men's 20km individual race
LENZERHEIDE, Switzerland, Feb 19 (Reuters) - France's Eric Perrot overcame a single early miss on the shooting range with a powerful display of skiing to cruise to gold in the men's 20km individual race at the International Biathlon Union World Championships on Wednesday.
The 23-year-old completed the course in 47 minutes and 58.1 seconds, 52.4 seconds ahead of Tommaso Giacomel of Italy, who took silver, with Quentin Fillon Maillet securing the bronze for France, just under two minutes behind the winner.
The brilliant run of form that had Norwegian Johannes Thingnes Boe win the first two individual gold medals at the championships came to an abrupt halt after three misses at the first shoot, causing him to finish well outside the top 10.
Warm weather and bright sunshine in Lenzerheide, Switzerland greeted the 97 participants as they set off on the course at 30-second intervals, but with each missed shot adding a minute to their time, the athletes had to be wary of the tricky gusts of wind that caused them problems on the shooting range.
Local favourites Niklas Hartweg and Sebastian Stalder at one point were first and second after crossing the line, but with the stronger contenders all starting in the middle of the field, the two Swiss racers were eventually edged off the podium.
Perrot, whose sole miss came on the second shoot, found his groove in the middle of the race, speeding around the course and hitting his final 10 shots to heap the pressure on his rivals.
Italy's Giacomel responded best as he battled to keep pace with the Frenchman's skiing, but a miss on the 19th of his 20 shots in the competition and the ensuing one-minute penalty dashed his hopes of a gold medal.
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