Matthias Kyburz: won again, but an important goal still outstanding

Matthias Kyburz: won again, but an important goal still outstanding

Photo: Erik Borg

For Matthias Kyburz it was of course great to get the first individual gold at the European Championships, but there is something else that is a bigger goal for him in the Czech Republic.

At the start of the World Cup in Wroclaw, Matthias showed again that he is an incredible sprinter in winning the sprint. He has previously been a World Champion on that distance. He has also won the World Cup overall, but there’s also something that is missing in his prize collection.

In some ways it’s a bit strange, but Matthias has never won a medal in a forest format at a European Championships or World Championships during the long time that he has been one of the best in the world.

“Well”, he smiles, “in fact it’s a bigger goal for this championships than the Sprint. It’s in the forest that I have been working hard to better myself in recent months. I want to improve my level. I have almost not been training for sprint”, he says.

Keeping winning

– But you’re winning and winning!

“I saw in Wroclaw that I can still manage to, but I don’t think my level has risen from earlier. I think it’s a bit like in earlier years”.

The 26-year-old athlete tells that he ran rather safely in the first part of the race. “Towards the end it was easier and I just pushed hard”.

It was very close at the top. Just three-tenths of a second was the difference between the medallists. “I didn’t know that. I think it was more exciting for you who know that than it was for me”.

A second-team gold

The Swiss star’s first European individual gold is his second in a regional championships. Four years ago he won the Relay with the Swiss second team. The championships then were in Falun in Sweden. “At the European Championships in Portugal two years ago I didn’t get a medal at all”, Kyburz says. Here he has started with medals from both the Sprint Relay and the individual Sprint.

The events still to come are all in the forest.

– What will you take part in?

“Everything. I wanted to take part in all and when I go for that I think I can manage that”.

A perfect run for Judith

Judith Wyder showed, like in Poland, that she is on top form in sprint again. She really knew what to do in Jesenik. “I slowed down the speed when that was necessary”, she says.