Biathlon — Giacomel in tears: "I thought this was my race, I failed"

Anterselva (Bolzano) — It was warm but Tommaso Giacomel had his hood up and his cap pulled down, his eyes full of tears. The men's 10 km sprint in biathlon proved a disappointment for the Italian who had been among the favourites. Immediately after the race and in subsequent interviews he was visibly distraught: "I failed, I thought this was the race for me, instead I failed. I am very disappointed. The worst thing is coming here as a favourite or among the favourites — it's something that makes me very angry."

Giacomel ruined his performance early with two mistakes in the prone shooting at the first range. "Honestly I don't know, I have no idea what I missed on the prone — that's enough," he said. Looking forward is the first step to recover, but with 22nd in the sprint he will start Sunday’s pursuit 1:43.4 behind the winner Quentin Fillon Maillet, making a comeback extremely unlikely: "The Olympics aren't over but I have already compromised Sunday's race because you can't realistically hope to recover more than a minute and a half on the leaders. It's one of those moments."

Among the other Italians there were brighter faces. Nicola Romanin, at 31 achieving his best result of his career, celebrated an emotional performance at his home Games: "I'm super happy to have given my best in front of the home crowd. Seeing my son before the start really fired me up. I'm proud, I thank everyone who cheered for us. The course was painted red, white and green — we're lucky to have the Olympics here. It was my childhood dream."

Lukas Hofer was the top Italian in 13th: "Thirteenth with a limited gap, 1:22 — in World Cup terms that's fine, but this is the Olympics. I'll have to keep believing until Sunday. I made some mistakes with bicarbonate and my stomach was upside down. I'm happy for Romanin, he's even rooming with me. I feel bad for Giacomel because I know how much he wanted this and how strong he is. I'm sure he'll get back at it because he has room to improve; the important thing is not to give up."

Elia Zeni missed qualifying for the pursuit by just nine-tenths of a second and described his race bitterly: "I don't know what happened in prone, three misses are too many."

Norwegian Sturla Holm Laegreid — who finished third and had recently been in the headlines for a private matter he alluded to only briefly — said he focused solely on his time and on giving his best during the race.

The men's pursuit is scheduled for Sunday. For Italy the chances of a major recovery appear limited, but hopes remain for the relay and the mass start later in the programme.