6th CISM Military World Games: Switzerland and Russia take the gold in Relay

With the victories of Switzerland and Russia in the Relay, came to an end the Orienteering program included in the 6th CISM Military World Games. Overall, Russia showed all his power, winning six of eight gold medals.

After a well earned break, Orienteering has returned to 6th CISM Military World Games for the last stage. Similarly to what happened in the individual races of Middle and Long Distance, the uneven area around Dongyang University, at Mungyeong (South Korea), hosted the Relay, putting on trial 37 male teams and 16 female. Starting by the women's competition, after the higher performances of Tatiana Ryabkina and Yulia Novikova in the individual races, nobody expected anything other than a Russian victory. Called to join the team, Svetlana Mironova proved to be a weight reinforcement and, in the end, the demonstration of Russian's superiority translated into a new victory with the time of 1:46:46, and a lead of seven minutes on Latvia, second placed and 8:36 over Lithuania, ranked third.

In a more detailed analysis to the course, it is worth noting that Russia took the lead from the start, with Tatiana Ryabkina finishing the first leg with a comfortable advantage over Lithuania and Norway, at the time her most direct opponents. Latvia had a disastrous first leg, with Elina Karklina losing more than fourteen minutes (!) for the leadership and to leave her team in the 7th place; but Aija Skratina first and, in the final leg, Laura Vike, were perfect to ensure the best split times, crowning with the silver medal an absolutely sensational recuperation. After the achievement in the previous edition of the Games (Rio de Janeiro, 2011), where they reached the bronze medal, the Brazilians were this time many holes below than what would be expected. Franciely de Siqueira Chiles, the current Brazilian Champion, got badly on the map and the penultimate place in the end of the first route lay down any hope for a good result. Tania Maria Jesus de Carvalho still would regain a position, but the performance of Leticia da Silva Saltori eventually fixed Brazil in the 15th final position, at 1:24:23 from the lead.

Matthias Kyburz, the “golden boy”

In the men's course, the fight between Switzerland and Russia was running high, with only ten seconds separating, in the end, the two teams. Austria started best, thanks to Gernot Kerschbaumer's great performance, but it was Russia who took the lead at the entrance for the decisive leg, with Dmitriy Tsvetkov having an advantage of 24 seconds over the Austrians, while Switzerland and Estonia ran already something apart, with a disadvantage of 2:31 and 2:44, respectively, for the lead. The truth is that Matthias Kyburz was absolutely unstoppable in this final leg, blanking the time that separated him from Tsvetkov and reaching the victory with the final time of 2:02:33. Russia finished, as stated above, ten seconds later, leaving the third place to Estonia, with a time of 2:03:51, thanks mainly to the performances of the brothers Lauri Sild and Timo Sild. With Leandro Pereira Pasturiza, Ironir Ev and Sidnaldo Alberto Farias Sousa in the team, Brazil finished in the 12th place with a time of 2:33:37, being the first non-European team overall.

In the final accounts of these 6th CISM Military World Games, we can see that only five countries have reached medals, with Russia taking six gold medals, four silver and one bronze. With two gold medals, one silver and one bronze, Switzerland ranked second in the medalist of the Games, while the third place fell to Latvia with two silver medals and two bronze. France, with a silver medal and Estonia with two bronze medals, occupied by this order the fourth and fifth positions.

Complete results and further information at http://cism-orienteering.com/.

[Photo: CISM Orienteering / www.cism-orienteering.com]

Joaquim Margarido

6th CISM Military World Games: Russians in the lead

After the two individual courses of the 6th CISM Military World Games, Tatiana Ryabkina is definitely the big name of the competition so far. As for the men, Dmitriy Tsvetkov and Matthias Kyburz shared the gold.

The 6th edition of CISM Military World Games is being held since last 2nd October, at Mungyeong region, in South Korea. The event includes 24 different sports, involving approximately 8,700 athletes representing 110 countries. Orienteering is one of the sports represented in the Games, attracting the attention of 204 male and female athletes, wearing the colors of well known countries in Orienteering as Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark or Russia, or lesser known countries as Georgia, Indonesia or the United Arab Emirates.

The competition started yesterday with the Middle Distance course, held on the neighborhood of Dongyang University and involving the participation of 141 male athletes and 63 female. In the men's sector, the victory smiled clearly to the Russian Dmitriy Tsvetkov with a time of 33:22, against 34:26 of his compatriot Andrey Khramov. The Swiss Matthias Kyburz finished in 3rd place, 1:10 behind the winner. In the women's sector, Russia also occupied the top two positions, with Tatiana Ryabkina being the fastest with a time of 35:20, relegating Yulia Novikova to the second place with 1:05. Aija Skrastina, Latvia, was the third ranked, 2:03 behind the winner. In this course, another huge applause goes to the amazing 10th place of the Korean Ji Soo Park.

Brazilians highly rated

Returning to the terrains around Dongyang University, today was held the Long Distance course, in which Matthias Kyburz was the fastest among the 135 male participants. The Swiss athlete finished his course credited with the time of 1:23:32 after a titanic struggle with the French Frederic Tranchand, second placed, 1:05 behind the winner. Andrey Khramov was third, while the Polish Wojciech Kowalski repeated the fourth placed reached the day before. In the women's sector, among 62 participants, Tatiana Ryabkina and Yulia Novikova repeated the positions reached yesterday, although the difference between them was now much more expanded. Ryabkina needed 1:02:55 to complete her course against 1:07:04 of Novikova. The bronze medal was again to Latvia, this time thanks to the performance of Laura Vike, ranked third with a time of 1:08:35. It should be noted that the sum of the four best times of each country in the men's course and the three fastest times in the women's course allowed to generate a collective standing, in which Russia, in both Men and Women classes, was a convincing winner.

Brazil is represented in South Korea for a group of 10 athletes - six male and four female - going prominent note to the 18th place achieved today by Franciely de Siqueira Chiles. It should be noted that the Brazilian female athletes had already been in high plan on the first day, with three athletes in the Top 25, while in the male sector will worth the excellent 23rd place of Sidnaldo Farias Sousa in the Long Distance race as the best result achieved so far. In the team competition, Brazil was ranked 9th in Men class and 8th in the Women class in today's race.

All information at http://cism-orienteering.com/.

[Photo: MWG-2015 / www.cism-orienteering.com]

Joaquim Margarido