A clean sweep of individual gold medals for Hannes Hnilica AUT, and a second gold for Celine Wellenreiter SUI today; Hnilica finished 47 seconds clear, whilst for Wellenreiter a strong finish produced a 4-second win.
Long courses in hot weather, with quite complex long-leg route choices in undulating open and forest terrain, created serious challenges for the competitors on a third successive day of racing. Furthermore, the races ended with two loops including several controls in the maze of narrow streets in a small village – requiring high concentration after well over an hour of racing.
In the women’s race, Wellenreiter, the Dane Nikoline Splittorff and Sweden’s Elvira Larsson engaged in a sprint finish, finishing in that order to take the medals with 4 seconds between each rider. There was then a 1.31 gap until Sprint winner Ruska Saarela FIN appeared. Six nations were represented in the top six today.
Men’s race: Vojtech Ludvik takes the bronze medal with tight sprint in background Photo: EMTBOC
Hnilica (cover picture) delivered another master-class in the men’s race. His compatriot Andreas Waldmann was up with the lead for a good period, and held on well in the later stages to take a comfortable silver medal. Next to reach the finish was Czech rider Vojtech Ludvik – but just behind him a frenetic dash for the line involving 5 riders, all finishing within 5 seconds! Two of these representing France, a strong MTBO nation this year.
Tomorrow is the final day of racing: the Mixed Relay starts at 9.30 local time.
EMTBOC Mass Start leading results
Women
- Celine Wellenreiter SUI 1:17:20
- Nikoline Splittorff DEN 1:17:24
- Elvira Larsson SWE 1:17:28
- Ruska Saarela FIN 1:18:59
- Constance Devillers FRA 1:20:21
- Marisa Costa POR 1:20:43
Men
- Hannes Hnilica AUT 1:17:17
- Andreas Waldmann AUT 1:18:04
- Vojtech Ludvik CZE 1:18:43
- Silas Hotz SUI 1:18:45
- Paul Debray FRA 1:18:46
- Augustin Leclere FRA 1:18:47
Jiri Hradil CZE and Jonas Maiselis LTU finished 1 and 2 seconds respectively down on 6th place.
JEMTBOC Long Distance
Women: Gold, Kamila Klaus POL by 18 secs; Silver, Adela Ryglova CZE; Bronze, Signe Feil SWE
Men: Gold, Eemil Koskinen FIN by 0.03; Silver, Joel Holmgård SWE; Bronze, Matteo Traversi Montani ITA
EYMTBOC Long Distance
Women: Gold, Irmante Aleliunaite LTU by 2.52; Silver, Melanie Koch Sørensen DEN; Bronze, Frida Koskinen FIN
Men: Gold, Otakar Toloch CZE by 1.03; Silver, Diogo Virginia POR; Bronze, Elmeri Lang FIN
This was Irmante Aleliunaite’s second gold medal in the championships; she also won the Sprint.