ECTO 2016: Stalnacke and Giovannini won in Lisbon

For the first time ever, Portugal hosted a round of the European Cup in Trail Orienteering. The two ECTO's stages have in Erik Stålnacke (TempO) and Marco Giovannini (PreO) the big winners. Overall, Remo Madella won the Lisbon Trail Orienteering Meeting.

The European Cup in Trail Orienteering 2016 started this weekend with the two first stages taking place in the beautiful green area of the Monsanto Park, in Lisbon, Portugal. Organized by the CPOC – Clube Português de Orientação e Corrida, Municipality of Lisbon and Portuguese Orienteering Federation, the event attracted the presence of 41 competitors from six countries. Winner of ECTO's last edition, the Swedish Erik Stålnacke (Individual) couldn't start better, winning the TempO stage, saturday afternoon. Stålnacke performed really consistently, achieving a final result of 239 seconds and just two mistakes in the six stations (with five tasks each) overall. Despite an almost clean race - one single mistake! -, the Italian Remo Madella (VIVAIO) wasn't fast enough to reach the first position, staying close 25,5 seconds to the winner. The third place went to the portuguese Edgar Domingues (COC) with 279 seconds overall and as much mistakes as Stålnacke.

The ECTO's second stage, today, closed the portuguese Trail orienteering journey, with a PreO course with 24 controls and the “bonus” of a timed station adding three more tasks. This time Stalnacke wasn't accurate enough to repeat the victory and the podium's places were occupied for three competitors with the same number of correct answers – 21! -, separated by the time spent in the timed controls. Here, the Italian Marco Giovannini (OK Trzin) was righter and faster than the Finnish Esko Junttila (Muuramen Rasti) and the Swedish Martin Fredholm (OK Linné), respectivaley second and third in the standings.

The two ECTO stages were part of the Lisbon Trail Orienteering Meeting, a three stages event, the two still referred and also a PreO stage, yesterday morning. This one had in the Swedish Lennart Wahlgren (Rehns BK) and Ola Jansson (Björklinge SOK), the big winners in the Open class and Paralympic class, respectively. Overall, Remo Madella won the Lisbon Trail Orienteering Meeting in the Open class, followed by Martin Fredholm in the second position and Erik Stålnacke in the third place. Ola Jansson was the winner in the Paralympic class, with the portuguese Ricardo Pinto and Júlio Guerra, both from DAHP, being second and third ranked, respectively.

Further information at http://ltom2016.cpoc.pt/.

Joaquim Margarido