Two or three things I know about it...

1. Daniel Hubmann and Rachel Friedrich achieved the Middle Distance titles during the Swiss Orienteering Championships last weekend. Daniel Hubmann spent 31:41 to run his course, against 32:26 from his brother, Martin. Florian Howald was third, with more than 2:03 the winner. Rahel Friedrich conquered her first national gold by winning with 31:49; Simone Niggli and Sabine Hauswirth were second and third, with more 00:42 and 01:01, respectively. The Swiss journey counted with three more race tests, qualifying the best athletes for the European Championships in the Czech Republic and the World Cup round in Poland. The Long Distance had in Matthias Kyburz and Elena Roos the big winners, while Daniel Hubmann and Rahel Friedrich won the Sprint. Finally, Matthias Kyburz and Rahel Friedrich Were fastest on the 3000 meters race. With this results, the Swiss Orienteering Federation called to the Selection Team Daniel Hubmann, Martin Hubmann, Matthias Kyburz, Andreas Kyburz, Jonas Egger, Florian Howald, Andreas Rüedlinger, Raffael Huber, Christoph Meier, Térence Risse, Baptiste Rollier, Alain Denzler and Florian Schneider, in Men, and Rahel Friedrich, Sabine Hauswirth, Sarina Jenzer, Elena Roos, Martina Ruch, Kerstin Ullmann, Julia Gross, Lisa Holer, Sina Tommer, Anina Brunner, Lisa Schubnall and Judith Wyder, in Women. All the information at http://www.swiss-orienteering.ch/de/news/ol/773-10-athletinnen-und-11-athleten-fuer-em-selektioniert.html.

2. The city of Vila do Conde hosted the Portugal City Race 2016's third stage. The event was organized by the Grupo Desportivo dos Quatro Caminhos, Municipality of Vila do Conde and Portuguese Orienteering Federation. After two triumphs in a row for the Spanish Maikel Rodrigues, João Novo (.COM) won the Men Seniors class, meeting the 8800 meters of his course in 38:35. Maikel Rodrigues (AROMON) spent 54 seconds more than the winner and reached the second position, while the third place went to Jorge Fernandes (NAST) with a time of 43:40. In the women's class, Joana Fernandes, from Clube de Orientação do Minho won for the second time a stage of the Portugal City Race 2016 with 38:14, after the triumph in Barcelos, in the opening stage of the Circuit. Tânia Covas Costa, from the same club, and Sara Miranda (Individual) occupied the immediate positions with more 2:45 minutes and 9:21, respectively, than the winner. Maikel Rodrigues and Joana Fernandes are the leaders od the respective rankings. Everything to read at http://www.cityrace.pt/.

3. Jan Kocbach opened an interesting debate about the estimated winning time for women's Long Distance, after the IOF Foot-O Athletes' Commission's survey [HERE http://orienteering.org/athlete-survey-estimated-winning-time-for-womens-long-distance-events/]. Would you like to know the best athletes's opinions on the subject right now? Just take a look at http://news.worldofo.com/2016/04/13/how-long-should-the-womens-long-distance-be/ and see for yourself. From lots of messages, we can see Annika Billstam's sentence: “Just because we always done it this way doesn’t mean it’s right. It’s uncomfortable to change, but change is what makes progress.” And also Eva Jurenikova's opinion: “I wish this change came 10-20 years ago, it is too late for my own elite career, but I still want and I will continue to make effort to make our sport better and to increase the choice for the female athletes of the current and coming generations.”

4. The Swedish Trail Orienteering League started last weekend in Skåne region with two PreO stages. Almost one hundred competitors entered for the event, 44 of which in the Elite class. The Swedish Marit Wiksell (Rehns BK) won the first stage with 18 points and just one wrong answer. With 17 points there was 9 competitors and here the timed controls made the difference. William Rex (OK Landehof) performed better than the concurrency and was second, followed by Lennart Wahlgren (Rehns BK), Martin Fredholm (OK Linné) and Jens Andersson (OK Roslagen). The Norwegian Lars Jakob Waaler took the sixth place and was the first non-Swedish in the standings. On the second day, Marit Wiksell was 13th, 1 point less than the leading group. The winner was the Swedish Michael Johansson (Vänersborgs SK) with 19 points, the same number of points as 9 other competitors. But the former European and World Champion in 2014 solved the two timed tasks in 9 seconds and was the winner, with Clara Jakobsson and Robert Jakobsson, both from Tidaholm SOK Sisu, being second and third and close 3 and 4 seconds, respectively. Clive Allen (Silkeborg OK), from Great Britain, was this time the first non-Swedish competitor in the standings. Full results at https://www.preoresultat.se/.

Joaquim Margarido