10th Memorial Puma: Victory of Lennart Wahlgren

The Swedish Lennart Wahlgren was the brilliant winner of the 10th Memorial of 7th Guards Brigade “PUMA”, in Trail Orienteering. The event preceded the World Championships of the discipline and took place in Varaždin, Croatia. Luís Gonçalves, in 19th place, was the best Portuguese ranked.

Prior to the World Trail orienteering Championships WTOC 2015, took place in Varaždin region, in northern Croatia, the 10th Memorial of 7th Guards Brigade “PUMA”. Shared between Foot Orienteering and Trail Orienteering - with a TempO stage and two PreO stages, the latter counting for the Unofficial European Cup in Trail orienteering ECTO 2015 - the event caught the attention of three hundred participants, half of which in the competition of Trail Orienteering. With limited resources, the organization, signed by the OK Medimurje club, struggled with serious difficulties face the abnormally high number of entries, and the long queues for the start on the second day and the recurrent delays in the publication of results, are aspects less positive. Weaknesses that Jasminka Cindric Perkovic and their team mates managed to overcome with stoicism and always, but always, with great availability and friendliness.

By winning the stage that filled the first day of the event, the Swedish Lennart Wahlgren pointed out in the best way his presence in the competition and getting a set of excellent results that eventually worth the victory in the sum of three days of competition. The fourth place achieved in the second stage step in Luzec, and the fifth in Varaždinske Toplice in the last day, eventually settled a triumph more than deserved. With “modest” results in the first two days and a victory on the last day of competition, the Latvian Guntars Mankus, World Champion in PreO in 2014, concluded in the second position overall. The third place went to another World Champion in 2014, but in this case in TempO, Martin Jullum. After the third place in the opening stage and with a victory in the second stage, the Norwegian sank unexpectedly in the decisive day, seeing to fade away between his fingers a triumph that could not seem to escape him. With the same points of Martin Jullum, in the fourth position, ranked the Italian Remo Madella.

As for the Portuguese Luís Gonçalves scored two brilliant results - 8th place in TempO stage and 9th in the second day of the PreO - but the 57th position in Luzec forest, in the intermediate stage, turned out to “remove” him to the 19th place overall. Cláudio Tereso, on the 58th place overall and Edgar Domingues, in the 67th position, completed the Portuguese presence in a list where the names of 113 athletes appear, the same as featured the three days of competition. Ricardo Pinto, Ana Paula Marques, Inês Domingues and Joaquim Margarido also participated in the Memorial Puma, but only in the two stages of PreO.

Final Standings

1. Lennart Wahlgren (Sweden) 10 points

2. Guntars Mankus (Latvia) 33 points

3. Martin Jullum (Norway) 37 points

4. Remo Madella (Italy) 37 points

5. Marit Wiksell (Sweden) 40 points

6. Dušan Furucz (Slovakia) 42 points

7. Libor Forst (Czech Republic) 44 points

8. Krešo Keresteš (Slovenia) 44 points

9. Ivica Bertol (Croatia) 46 points

10. Tomáš Leštínský (Czech Republic) 49 points

Full results and other information at http://croecto2015.blogspot.com/.

Joaquim Margarido