Jules Burnotte ran into trouble behind his rifle and finished 57and of the 12.5 kilometer pursuit contested on Sunday at the World Cup in Ruhpolding, Germany. The good mood was still there for the Quebecer, in good shape to represent Canada at the Beijing Olympics.
Posted at 2:19 p.m.
The Sherbrooke resident was initially critical when it came time to comment on his performance of the day in an interview with Sportcom.
“It was disastrous! There was a good right-to-left wind on the first prone shot and I didn’t make the right adjustments. Then I was unable to correct the situation and this is what it looks like. It’s a shame, because it’s really beyond my capabilities. There’s no reason for it to vary so much,” he said.
Burnotte’s difficulties finally relegated him to the bottom of the standings. He crossed the finish line just over 6 minutes behind Frenchman Quentin Fillon (31 min 30.6 s), the big winner of this pursuit.
Russian Alexandr Loginov (+8.8 seconds) and Belarusian Anton Smolski (+13.1 seconds) completed the podium. Also in action, brothers Scott and Christian Gow clock in at 33and and 39and ranks of this event which brought together the 60 best athletes of the 10 kilometer sprint on Thursday.
“At least I didn’t finish last!” continued Burnotte, who takes it all with a grain of salt.
“It’s a small victory! I fought hard on the last lap not to be the last to complete the race and I got there. I wish I had a better shot and wanted to give myself a chance to work on that today [dimanche], but I hadn’t put any pressure on myself. »
It must be said that some of the pressure had already died down for the 25-year-old biathlete who expects to be able to announce some good news over the next week.
“The qualifying process [olympique] officially ended today [dimanche] and I knew in advance that I was well placed. There will be four guys in the squad for Beijing and four of us have reached the criteria to qualify. Nothing is official yet, but it smells like the Games! he said in conclusion.
A final World Cup is scheduled before the start of the Beijing Olympics. It will take place next week in Antholz-Anterselva, Italy.