The women's 7.5km sprint at the IBU World Cup in Oslo was postponed today due to fog ©IBU

France’s Julia Simon has been crowned winner of the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup women’s pursuit title without having to strap on her skis or fire a shot.

The 26-year-old from Albertville was declared the champion after the women’s pursuit competition at the last IBU World Cup event in Oslo was cancelled.

After a night of snowfall, heavy fog rolled into the Holmenkollen Ski Arena this afternoon, forcing officials firstly to delay the start of the women’s 7.5 kilometres sprint competition, before eventually postponing it until 3pm tomorrow.

A new schedule for the remaining two days of the event had to be drawn up, with the women’s 10km pursuit being sacrificed to ensure everything could be fitted in. 

Today's postponement and subsequent re-arrangement of the schedule means that France's Julia Simon was declared winner of the women's pursuit title ©Getty Images
Today's postponement and subsequent re-arrangement of the schedule means that France's Julia Simon was declared winner of the women's pursuit title ©Getty Images

Simon finished the pursuit on 350 points, 23 ahead of Sweden’s Elvira Öberg in second, with Italy’s Dorothea Wierer back in third on 285.

Simon will claim the overall title if she scores 37 points in tomorrow’s rearranged event.

She is currently leading the race for the Crystal Globe on 1,003 points, 144 ahead of Wierer and 185 points in front of another Italian, Lisa Vittozzi, after winning four individual races this season.

If she is successful, Simon will become the first Frenchwoman to lift the title since Sandrine Bailly in 2005.

The success of Simon is in contrast to the men’s team, who are suffering their worst IBU World Cup season for a quarter-of-a-century.

With two races remaining, they are still waiting for their first winner of the season.

The last time they failed to have a gold medallist to celebrate was in 1996-1997.

France won the men’s 4x7.5km relay at the IBU World Championships in Oberhof in Germany last month but failed to get any other male competitors on the medal podium in what was their worst performance since 2009.

Vincent Vittoz, in black hat, has announced that him and Patrick Favre are quitting as French men's coaches following a disastrous season ©Getty Images
Vincent Vittoz, in black hat, has announced that him and Patrick Favre are quitting as French men's coaches following a disastrous season ©Getty Images

As a result, men’s team coaches Vincent Vittoz and Patrick Favre today announced they would be leaving at the end of this season, claiming that their methods were no longer working.

"It is clear that we are no longer in tune with our athletes," Vittoz, the 2005 30 kilometres skiathlon world champion, told French newspaper L’Equipe.

"We analysed what did not work, the athletes themselves made certain comments.

"Today, we feel that they are no longer able to hear some of our speeches.

"We were ready to continue, but there is a break in this discourse that is there and we cannot continue."