Three women in the top six for Finland; four men in the top six for Russia – and in both cases including the gold medallist. This was the big story from the final day of the World MTBO Championships in Austria.
The Finnish winner was Henna Saarinen, scoring her first ever international individual medal with victory over a double silver medal result – one of the big favourites, the Czech rider Martina Tichovska, and the Dane Camilla Søgaard both 9 seconds down on the winning time. The Finnish riders Antonia Haga and Marika Hara both ended in podium placings.
Anton Foliforov, Russia got back to winning ways today with victory by 12 seconds over his compatriot Grigory Medvedev. Krystof Bogar, Czech republic took the bronze medal. Russians Valeriy Gluhov and Ruslan Gritsan both made the top six.
In the Junior races, Thomas Steinthal of Denmark, multi-medallist from the European Championships earlier this year, won his only gold of this tournament. He was ahead of his arch-rival Jan Hasek, Czech Republic by 26 seconds. Czech athlete Vilma Kralova won the women’s Sprint.
Women
- Henna Saarinen FIN 20:05
2= Camilla Søgaard DEN & Martina Tichovska CZE 20:14
- Antonia Haga FIN 20:25
- Marika Hara FIN 20:29
- Veronika Kubinova CZE 20:39
Men
- Anton Foliforov RUS 20:39
- Grigory Medvedev RUS 20:51
- Krystof Bogar CZE 20:53
- Vojtech Ludvik CZE 20:59
- Valeriy Gluhov RUS 21:01
- Ruslan Gritsan RUS 21:09
Junior women: Gold to Vilma Kralova CZE by 0.34
Junior men: Gold to Thomas Steinthal DEN by 0.26
European Youth women: Gold to Alena Aksenova RUS by 0.47
European Youth men: Gold to Kylian Wymer FRA by 0.08