World MTB Orienteering Championships: home victory in men’s sprint

World MTB Orienteering Championships: home victory in men’s sprint

Tõnis Erm took a home win at the World Championships sprint. Photo: Ludomir Parfianowicz

Tõnis Erm was a popular winner of the first race of the championships, the sprint, held in Estonia today. His compatriot Lauri Malsroos also excelled himself by gaining the silver medal. Cecilia Thomasson, Sweden, won her first World Championships gold – she won the European Championships Long distance race earlier in the season.

On a day when the main talking point after the race was the number of disqualifications for riding in out-of-bounds areas, the course in and around the small town Tapa was challenging, causing a lot of mistakes and some mis-punches amongst the riders.  At the finish, Tõnis Erm was 21 seconds the quickest in the men’s race. Krystof Bogar, Czech Republic took the bronze medal, 53 seconds down on Erm, after third-fastest Samuli Saarela, Finland was disqualified.

Cecilia Thomasson’s winning margin was 10 seconds, the young Finnish rider Eeva-Liisa Hakala taking the silver medal, and Tatiana Repina, Russia the bronze after finishing 16 seconds down on Thomasson’s time. In this race Emily Benham, Great Britain suffered disqualification after finishing in third-best time.

Cecilia Thomasson mastered the sprint course. Photo: Ludomir Parfianowicz

Riders had been warned beforehand about one particular forbidden area in the centre of the town, but many were reported by marshals for crossing the ‘forbidden line’ there or elsewhere. In the men’s race 22 riders were disqualified and 8 mis-punched; the figures for the women’s race were 5 and 8 respectively. Many of the junior men and a few junior women also rode into forbidden areas.

Junior World Champions in Sprint are Henna Saarinen, Finland and Cedric Beill, France.

Tomorrow is the Middle distance race, to be held in forest terrain with a ski centre as the base, quite technical with some sharp ups and downs and many ski tracks and other paths.

Official results, Sprint

Women, 5.7 km

1. Cecilia Thomasson SWE 20:32
2. Eeva-Liisa Hakala FIN 20:42
3. Tatiana Repina RUS 20:58
4. Susanna Laurila FIN 21:11
5. Marika Hara FIN 21:32
6. Martina Tichovska CZE 22:00

Men, 6.1 km

1. Tõnis Erm EST 19:24
2. Lauri Malsroos EST 19:45
3. Krystof Bogar CZE 20:17
4. Ruslan Gritsan RUS 20:20
5. Hans Jørgen Kvåle NOR 20:26
6. Anton Foliforov RUS 20:40

Junior Women – medallists

Gold – Henna Saarinen FIN
Silver – Svetlana Poverina RUS
Bronze – Veronika Kubinova CZE

 Junior Men – medallists

Gold – Cedric Beill FRA
Silver – Andreas Waldmann AUT
Bronze – Anders Blomster FIN