OLYMPICS: Biathlon-Simon shows nerves of steel as France sweep to mixed relay gold

Julia Simon hit all 10 of her shots as she stormed through the final leg to secure gold for France in a thrilling biathlon mixed relay at the Antholz-Anterselva Biathlon Arena on Sunday.

Lisa Vittozzi anchored host nation Italy to the silver medal and Germany picked up the bronze.

The French finished in a time of one hour 4:15.5, with Italy 25.8 seconds further back and Germany over a minute behind the winner.

Simon’s French team, consisting of Lou Jeanmonnot, Eric Perrot and Quentin Fillon Maillet, had their fair share of misses on the shooting range, but she displayed nerves of steel on the anchor leg, rattling off a flawless 10 shots on her two visits to the range to save the day.

With the crowd primarily made up of fanatical fans from Italy, Germany and France, they all got what they came for as Vittozzi, who is renowned for being quick on the trigger, held her nerve to emerge into the last lap in second place.

Germany shot brilliantly until the final visit to the range where the vastly experienced Franziska Preuss had some uncharacteristic misses, but she recovered to hold off a late Norwegian challenge to take the bronze.

While the drama happened on the shooting range, the race was won out on the course as the French four made the most of their fast skis to deliver a team performance of enormous power, regularly eclipsing the best lap times of their rivals.

There was disappointment for Norway, who made the running early on but fell away towards the end, and Sweden's challenge fell apart at the first shoot as lead-off man Sebastian Samuelsson struggled to hit the target, digging his team into a hole they could not get out of.

There was joy for local Italian hero Dorothea Wierer, who has taken a bronze medal at each of the last three Olympics, and on Sunday she finally went one better, securing a silver medal that brought roars of approval from the grandstand.

-Reporting by Philip O'Connor; Editing by Alison Williams/Reuters