Czech rider Veronica Kubinova won by a large margin in the women’s Sprint in Poland today, but for Lauri Malsroos, Estonia, victory came by just 3 seconds.
Kubinova was fastest throughout in the women’s race and won by 1.17 over Camilla Søgaard, Denmark, who finished strongly to pick up a place in the later stages. Third was the Swedish rider Nadia Larsson, who rode a very good race after a slow start – she was only tenth at control 6. Fourth was Finland’s Marika Hara who lost time towards the end after being second for a long period. There were 49 competitors in the race, and the top-6 order was notable in there being 6 different nations represented.
Valeriy Gluhov, Russia looked a possible winner early on in the men’s race with 67 competitors, but dropped to fifth mid-way and ended in bronze medal position. The Czech favourite Krystof Bogar started slowly, then was leading at control 13. Gold seemed likely, but he had to give way to a very fast finish from Malsroos and settle for the silver medal. The Czech Vojtech Ludvik and two well-known Russians, Ruslan Gritsan and Grigory Medvedev, were all disqualified.
In this race there were 5 different nationalities among the top 6, and overall 8 nations can celebrate a medal in the Sprint today.
Tomorrow the races are with mass start and with planned winning times of 75-85 minutes.
Leading results, Sprint
Women
- Veronica Kubinova CZE 21:06
- Camilla Søgaard DEN 22:23
- Nadia Larsson SWE 22:31
- Marika Hara FIN 22:44
- Anastasiya Svir RUS 22:47
- Clare Dallimore GBR 23:00
Men
- Lauri Malsroos EST 20:47
- Krystof Bogar CZE 20:50
- Valeriy Gluhov RUS 21:15
- Viktor Larsson SWE 21:27
- Jonas Maiselis LTU 21:35
- Anton Foliforov RUS 21:38