European MTBO Championships: first gold medals to Denmark and Czechia

Camilla Søgaard, Denmark and Vojtech Stransky, Czechia won today’s Middle distance races, Søgaard by 13 seconds from fellow Dane Nikoline Splittorff and Stransky by 1.20 over compatriot Krystof Bogar. Both Denmark and Czechia won two medals today, but Finland was best nation in terms of top-6 placings, getting third and fourth in the women’s race and third and sixth in the men’s.

Women’s podium today. Photo: Ole Søgaard

This was a great start to the season for Søgaard, last year’s CX80 World Cup winner, who has only just recovered from 3 weeks of illness. Ruska Saarela, Finland started out best, leading by a small margin at the first radio control, but she dropped to fourth at the 27-minute point. Shortly after this point it was Splittorff in front by 31 seconds, but Søgaard finished the 17.4 km race in good style.

This was 32-year-old Stransky’s best individual race in an elite career of some 14 years. He gets consistently good results and is IOF world-ranked eighth. Bogar, one of the favourites for this 20.5 km race, led up to the half-way mark and was in front by 1.18 ahead of Stransky, who started slowly – 12^th, 1.25 down on Bogar at the first radio. However Stransky had the better of things from then on, getting a lead of 1.15 by the 43-minute mark and holding this through to the finish.

Junior and Youth championships are also being held at the venue, Loulé in southern Portugal, and France came out best with gold medals in both women-17 and men-20. All the senior races count in the first round of the CX80 MTBO World Cup.

Find results and tracking from today at IOF LIVE.

It’s Long Distance day tomorrow, with the Mass Start format being used in the EMTBOC races. Follow the action on IOF LIVE, including GPS tracking! The men’s race starts at 11.00 and the women’s at 11.10, both local time (GMT + 1). Some “rugged and hilly terrain” is promised!

Thursday’s Mass Start at IOF LIVE

Leading results, Middle Distance

Women

1. Camilla Søgaard DEN 47:16
2. Nikoline Splittorff DEN 47:29
3. Ruska Saarela FIN 48:51
4. Ingrid Stengård FIN 49:18
5. Ursina Jaeggi SUI 51:03
6. Gabriele Andrasiuniene LTU 51:17

Men

1. Vojtech Stransky CZE 47:50
2. Krystof Bogar CZE 49:10
3. André Haga FIN 49:42
4. Jonas Maiselis LTU 49:58
5. Lauri Malsroos EST 50:09
6. Teemu Kaksonen FIN 50:10

W20 Gold: Iris Aurora Pecorari ITA by 1.03

M20 Gold: Augustin Leclère FRA by 0.54

W17 Gold: Anne Caroline Sipos FRA by 0.08

M17 Gold: Noe Henseler SUI by 0.38