Czechia took the gold medals in a tightly contested Sprint Relay, with Krystof Bogar finishing just a couple of metres ahead of André Haga, Finland after being 5 seconds ahead at the spectator passage with 2 km to go. Bronze medallists were Italy.
Sprint Relay mass start Photos: Jakub Kijak / MoonLine Media
On the first leg where all the riders were women, double individual gold medal winner Nikoline Splittorff was first to the changeover for Denmark, with a lead of 51 seconds over Martina Tichovska for CZE 1. At this point Finland 1 (Middle gold medallist Ruska Saarela) were 7th, 1.57 down on the leading time. Splittorff completed the 11.5 km course, which was in technical terrain with many route choices and opportunities for short cuts, in 47.22.
Hard work on a short-cut
Vojtech Ludvik, Long Distance champion, made sure on Leg 2 that Czechia would be in the lead for leg 3 with a fine performance where he came in with a 40-second lead over Samuel Pokala for Finland 1. Italy, fourth after the first leg (ridden by the junior triple gold medallist Iris Aurora Pecorari), established a strong third position, Fabiano Bettega being 1.11 down but more importantly, 2 minutes ahead of the next team.
On the last leg, André Haga for Finland, Middle Distance champion one day earlier, quickly caught up with the Czech Krystof Bogar and at the spectator passage Bogar had just a slight lead. Haga was perhaps marginally the stronger, but couldn’t make up the crucial final metres to get a win. The very experienced rider Luca Dallavalle rode a sound leg to bring Italy to a comfortable bronze medal position. The Czech second team finished fourth, but only the leading team from each nation counts in the results.
There were some hectic sprints to the finish line
In the Junior and Youth relays, France won two gold medals and one silver, Czechia won two gold medals and Finland won three silver.
Leading results, Sprint Relay
- Czechia 1 (Martina Tichovska, Vojtech Ludvik, Krystof Bogar)
- Finland 1 (Ruska Saarela, Samuel Polkala, André Haga) + 0.01
- Italy 1 (Iris Aurora Pecorari, Fabiano Bettega, Luca Dallavalle) + 1.25
- Lithuania, 5. Austria, 6. France
Junior EMTBO Championships Relay Winners
Women: France; Men: France
European Youth MTBO Championships Relay Winners
Women: Czechia; Men: Czechia