France's double Olympic gold medallist Quentin Fillon Maillet is set to be the first out in the men's 10km sprint at the third leg of the IBU World Cup in Annecy ©Getty Images

The third round of the International Biathlon Union World Cup at the French resort of Annecy Le Grand Bornand guarantees terrific home support for double OIympic gold medallist Quentin Fillon Maillet. 

He has been drawn to be the first out men’s 10 kilometre sprint which is due to start the event tomorrow.

Fillon Maillet produced three top 10 finishes in Hochfilzen last weekend but is still some way off the top of this season's leaderboard.

The pace so far has been set by Norwegian biathlon giant Johannes Thingnes Bøm who returned from the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing with four gold medals.

He has already stamped his class on the new campaign with sprint, pursuit and relay  victories in both Kontiolahti and Hochfilzen to lead the overall standings from his compatriot and fellow Olympic team gold medallist Sturla Holm Lægreid.

The accurate shooting of Julia Simon has helped her lead the early IBU World Cup standings and she will be confident of more success in front of her home crowd in Annecy ©Getty Images
The accurate shooting of Julia Simon has helped her lead the early IBU World Cup standings and she will be confident of more success in front of her home crowd in Annecy ©Getty Images

So far, the pace setter in the women’s competition has been Julia Simon of France, an Olympic team silver medallist in February.

She has started this new campaign in superb form with victories in the pursuit in both Kontiolahti  and Hochfilzen to lead the standings as she returns to French soil. 

Norway’s double Olympian Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold began her season with second in the individual competition in Kontiolahti and another second behind Simon in Austria last weekend in the Pursuit.

Italy’s Lisa Vitozzi has also made a consistent start, with only one finish outside the top 10 in the first two World Cup events this season.

The women’s pursuit is scheduled for Friday (December 16) followed by men’s and women’s pursuit races on Saturday (December 17) and the mass start on Sunday (December 18).