Bergman – “I felt so strong”

Bergman – “I felt so strong”

With a Viking helmet on his head, Gustav Bergman finished the relay together with his team-mates and did just the same as at the European Championships a couple of months ago.

Matthias Kyburz from Switzerland was the first one to start on the last leg, but just after him started Gustav Bergman, Sweden, and Thierry Gueorgou, France, and it looked like these three teams were going to take the medals, but the big question was: who was going to win the gold.

Bergman felt very strong from the start. “After five minutes running I felt sure that I was going to win”, he smiles. After about half of the course the outcome became clear. Gustav Bergman had maybe a bit shorter forking, and he just disappeared from the others in the front. “I understand I had got a gap and I just had to go hard”, he says.

He heard that the gap was of almost one minute when he passed the arena. “I knew that I would have no problem to be in front with that”. At the arena he took a new compass. He felt the compass he started with didn’t really show the right direction, but he found his way anyway. He ran very fast in the first part of the last loop, and on his way to the last controls he heard the speaker and just ran a bit more safely.

From when the Swedes finished, it took more than one minute before Switzerland took silver just in front of France. For Bergman and his team-mates Jonas Leandersson and Fredrik Johansson it was the same as they did at European Championships in Portugal this spring.

Bergman reached a new peak in his orienteering career in the same country where he impressed so much at the Junior World Championships five years ago.