The final events of the season in the unofficial European Cup in Trail Orienteering (ECTO) were held in Prague last weekend, and the outcome in the overall standings was a victory by 10 points for Jan Furucz, Slovakia ahead of the talented Finnish athlete Antti Rusanen. Third, a further 22 points down, was Erik Stålnacke, Sweden.
This has been a remarkable season for Furucz, who quite apart from competing consistently at the highest level, was also one of the key organisers of the very successful European TrailO Championships at the end of April.
ECTO has gained in popularity considerably this season, with significantly more athletes competing in several of the events. 260 athletes in all competed in at least one ECTO event during the year.
Next year’s ECTO programme has also been announced; there will be five multi-day weekend events, in Slovenia (16-17/3), Great Britain (19-20/4), Portugal (22-23/6, warm-up for the World TrailO Championships), Poland (14-15/9) and Sweden (5-6/10).