France takes gold in the first biathlon race of the Winter Olympics as Simon secures mixed relay win

France dominated the second half of the mixed relay biathlon race at the Milan Cortina Olympics on Sunday with fast skiing and strong shooting to take gold ahead of Italy and Germany. Julia Simon hit her final five targets and left the range alone, taking her team of Eric Perrot, Quentin Fillon Maillet and Lou Jeanmonnot to a solid win at a time of 1:04:15. Italy's Lisa Vittozzi also cleaned her last targets, left the range in second place and held the Germans off to take the silver medal, to the great delight of the roaring capacity crowd.