FootO World Cup Round 1 2016: Swiss victories in the Sprint

After a first stage somewhat desappointing in terms of results, the Swiss “army” was keen to demonstrate all its stamina in the FootO World Cup Sprint final, held this afternoon in the Polish city of Wroclaw. An exciting journey in which Matthias Kyburz and Judith Wyder were the big winners.

With the Sprint finals' completion, came to an end the second day of the FootO World Cup Round 1 2016. After the qualifying heats, this morning, 82 athletes took part in the decisive races, 42 in the Men Elite class and 40 in the Women Elite class. The city of Wroclaw was again the epicentre of all emotions and, as during the morning races, the big names were the Swiss Matthias Kyburz, Daniel Hubmann and Judith Wyder and the Danish Maja Alm.

Hardly contested, the men's final saw Kyburz performing stronger than Hubmann in the last controls. The less good entrance on the map turned out to be not too penalizing to both runners and Kyburz would even be the fastest in the 4.2 kilometers of the course, ending with the time of 14:33. Current World Champion in Sprint, the Swedish Jonas Leandersson still came to the lead during the race, but would end third placed, 5 seconds after the winner.

In the Women's final, Judith Wyder was at the highest level, leading from the beginning. Only the Ukrainian Nadiya Volynska was able to follow the really strong start of the Swiss athlete, but would lose time as the race neared its end. In the meanwhile, Maja Alm - current World Champion in Sprint and leader of the IOF World Sprint Ranking - had a fantastic recovery after a less good entrance on the map, but not enough to get the win. In the end, Judith Wyder won in 13:53, against 14:01 from Maja Alm. The third place was shared by Volynska, the Swedish Tove Alexandersson and the Finnish Marika Teini, 29 seconds after Wyder.

Results

Men Elite (4,2 Km 10 m 25 C)

1. Matthias Kyburz (Switzerland) 14:33 (+ 00:00)

2. Daniel Hubmann (Switzerland) 14:34 (+ 00:01)

3. Jonas Leandersson (Sweden) 14:38 (+ 00:05)

4. Øystein Kvaal Østerbø (Norway) 14:48 (+ 00:15)

5. Tim Roberston (New Zealand) 14:54 (+ 00:21)

6. Andreas Rueedlinger (Switzerland) 14:55 (+ 00:22)

Women Elite (3,5 Km 10 m 22 C)

1. Judith Wyder (Switzerland) 13:53 (+ 00:00)

2. Maja Alm (Denmark) 14:01 (+ 00:08)

3. Tove Alexandersson (Sweden) 14:22 (+ 00:29)

3. Marika Teini (Finland) 14:22 (+ 00:29)

3. Nadiya Volynska (Ukraine) 14:22 (+ 00:29)

6. Lina Strand (Sweden) 14:27 (+ 00:34)

Full results to check at http://eventor.orienteering.org/Events/ResultList?eventId=5350&groupBy=EventClass.

Joaquim Margarido