MTB Orienteering World Cup standings: Thomasson and Erm hold narrow leads

MTB Orienteering World Cup standings: Thomasson and Erm hold narrow leads

With one round to go in the MTB Orienteering World Cup, the final outcome is very open in both women’s and men’s classes. Following last week’s World Championships, Cecilia Thomasson, Sweden leads the women’s standings and Tõnis Erm, Estonia the men’s.

The total of the five best scores for each competitor out of the eight individual World Cup competitions in all will determine the final ranking order. So far there have been six races – three in Round 1 in Poland in June (the European Championships) and three at the World Championships. In Round 3 in Portugal in mid-October there will be two more races – a Sprint and a Long distance.

In the women’s World Cup, Marika Hara has won three races, Cecilia Thomasson two and Emily Benham one. At the present time, Hara and Benham are counting all their five finishes whereas Thomasson, who has successfully completed all six races, has now dropped her lowest score. With 60 points for a win, 50 for second place and 45 for third, the difference of only 13 points between Thomasson and Hara means there is still all to ride for.

In the men’s class, the victories have been taken by Tõnis Erm (two), Jussi Laurila (two) and one each for Valeriy Gluhov and Krystof Bogar. Here, only 26 points separate first from fifth place in the standings, and Laurila is only 16 points behind Erm.

In the Relay standings, Finland has a clear lead over Russia with the Czech Republic in third place. A mixed relay in Portugal in October completes the programme of races.

Leading World Cup standings

Women

1. Cecilia Thomasson SWE  251 points
2. Marika Hara FIN  238
3. Emily Benham GBR  216
4. Ingrid Stengård FIN  192
5. Susanna Laurila FIN  176
6. Maja Rothweiler SUI  163

Men 

1. Tõnis Erm EST  222
2. Jussi Laurila FIN  206
3. Ruslan Gritsan RUS  199
4. Valeriy Gluhov RUS  197
5. Anton Foliforov RUS  196
6. Jiři Hradil CZE  169

Relay

1. Finland  97
2. Russia  71
3. Czech Republic  67
4. Switzerland  54
5. Austria  44
6. Lithuania  42