By Philip O'Connor
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 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 2.5km 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 all 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 shot at 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 with just enough of a lead to hold off the Norwegian all the way to the line.
(Reporting by Philip O'Connor and Julien Pretot; Editing by Ken Ferris and Hugh Lawson)
