ETOC Relay victories for Finland and Czech Republic

ETOC Relay victories for Finland and Czech Republic

An exciting European TrailO Championships Relay in the open grounds of Castle Devín in Slovakia ended with wins for the Finnish and Czech teams in the Open and Paralympic classes respectively.

The Finland and Great Britain Open teams were the only ones to get a ‘full house’ of correct answers on the course, and it was the timed stations that were decisive. Here the Finns, with PreO champion Antti Rusanen on last leg , performed best and brought the team to a fairly comfortable victory. Sweden dropped one point on the course but did well at the timed stations to take the silver medals, whilst Great Britain outplayed several more fancied teams to take the bronze.

The Paralympic class was quite tight and was won by the Czech team with Jana Kostová, yesterday’s silver medallist, on the last leg. Russia were in second place and Sweden – perhaps the favourites today – ended third.

It was another warm and sunny day, and quite windy on the open parkland. The competition was followed by the ‘Opening Ceremony’ at the castle.

The final competition day is tomorrow, with the TempO Qualification in the morning and Final in the afternoon.

Leading Relay results

Open class

1. Finland (Pinja Mäkinen, Juha Hiirsalmi, Antti Rusanen)
2. Sweden (Stig Gerdtman, Martin Fredholm, Marit Wiksell) +2 mins 5 secs.
3. Great Britain (Charles Bromley Garner, Tom Dobra, John Kewley) +2: 32.5
4. Czech Republic, 5. Germany, 6. Slovakia

Paralympic class

1. Czech Republic (Hanka Doležalová, Pavel Dudik, Jana Kostová)
2. Russia (Dmitriy Docuchaev, Nataliia Salakhova, Pavel Shmatov) +1:05
3. Sweden (Inga Gunnarsson, Ola Jansson, Michael Johansson) +1:23.5
4. Finland, 5. Italy, 6. Latvia