The World Mountain Bike Orienteering Championships 2019 ended with a double victory for Russia in Relay.
In the men’s class, the Russian team took the lead right out the start and stayed in front of the race till the very end. Anton Foliforov started strongly, and together with Finn Jussi Laurila opened up more than a minute gap to other teams. On the second leg, Valeriy Gluhov retained the gap and finished one minute and twenty seconds ahead of the Czech team. Grigory Medvedev had a solid race on the last leg and finished with a comfortable one and a half minute margin ahead of Czechs. The Russian team won Relay for a second year in a row.
In the women’s race, the Russian team was more than 3 minutes behind the Finns after the first leg, but Olga Shipilova Vinogradova had a fantastic second leg and finished almost 3 minutes ahead of the Finish team. Anastasiya Svir on the last leg hold Marika Hara away and finished with a 45 seconds lead.
In junior classes Relay turned out more dramatic. In junior men’s race Czech Jan Hasek finished only 2 seconds ahead of Finn Juha Lilja. Junior women’s race also was decided in finish sprint. Danish Nikoline Splittoff closed more than 4 minutes gap and finished only a second ahead of French Lilou Pauly.
Leading results
Women
1. Russia (Anastaiya Bolshova, Olga Shipilova Vinogradova, Anstasiya Svir) 142:33
2. Finland (Ingrid Stengard, Ruska Saarela, Marika Hara) 143:18
3. Sweden (Linn Bylars, Sara Forsgren, Nadia Larsson) 149:35
Men
1. Russia (Anton Filoforov, Valeriy Gluhov, Grigory Medvedev) 134:09
2. Czech Republic (Jiri Hradil, Vojtech Ludvik, Krystof Bogar) 135:39
3. Finland (Jussi Laurila, Samuel Pokola, Pekka Niemi) 138:53
Men Junior
1. Czech Republic (Richard Wohanka, Ondrej Hasman, Jan Hasek) 102:36
2. Finland (Tomi Nykanen, Teemu Kaksonen, Juha Lilja) 102:38
3. Denmark (Noah Hoffmann, Mikkel Brunstedt, Thomas Steinthal) 105:57
Women Junior
1. Denmark (Christine Reibert, Annika Henriksen, Nikoline Splittoff) 91:31
2. France (Lucie Rudkiewicz, Marine Denoual, Lilou Pauly) 91:32
3. Czech Republic (Adela Zrnikova, Alexandra Svobodova, Vilma Kravola) 93:41
Next year the World Mountain Bike Orienteering Championships 2020 to be held in Czech Republic.