25/08/2011
Middle distance: gold to Finland and Austria
Samuli Saarela, Finland, and Michaela Gigon, Austria, were the winner of the middle distance final of the World Mountain Bike Orienteering Championships in Pozzolo di Villaga.
For Samuli Saarela, 23-year-old student of mechanical engineering in Tampere, it's the second gold in Vicenza. Before him only Ruslan Gritsan won long and middle distance in the same edition of WMTBOC, in 2005. The strong Russian was second today, almost three minutes behind Saarela. The bronze medal went to Tobias Breitschädel, Austria, an early starter who was long at the top of the standings.
in the Women's race the quickest was Michaela Gigon, Austria, who caught the 7th gold medal in her career (number 5 in middle distance). Silver went to Anna Kaminska from Poland. The gold medalist of the long distance, Rikke Kornvig, achieved a third place today.
The winner of the junior Men class was the Czech youth Krystof Bogar (1994), probably the youngest winner of a gold medal in JWOC.
After Olga Vinogradova in 2010, Russia has another double gold medalist in JWOC: Svetlana Poverina, 18-year-old from Moscow, won again, being a few seconds in front of her teammate Tatiana Repina.
MIDDLE DISTANCE RESULTS
Pozzolo di Villaga 25.08.2011
Men Elite (19,100 km - 450 climbing)
1 00.55.56 Saarela Samuli FIN
2 00.58.42 Gritsan Ruslan RUS
3 00.59.37 Breitschädel Tobias AUT
4 00.59.45 Foliforov Anton RUS
5 00.59.47 Hradil Jiri CZE
Women Elite (16,400 km - 390 climbing)
1 00.58.02 Gigon Michaela AUT
2 00.58.17 Kaminska Anna POL
3 00.59.04 Kornvig Rikke DEN
4 01.00.11 Stengard Ingrid FIN
5 01.01.03 Füzy Anna HUN
Men Junior (17,300 km - 410 climbing)
1 00.54.56 Bogar Krystof CZE
2 00.58.58 Ludvik Vojtech CZE
3 00.59.00 Kaskinen Kare FIN
4 01.00.00 Tsarev Denis RUS
5 01.00.34 Tooming Taaniel EST
6 01.01.00 Guizzardi Marco ITA
Women Junior (12,050 km - 280 climbing)
1 00.48.46 Poverina Svetlana RUS
2 00.48.57 Repina Tatiana RUS
3 00.52.16 Brezinova Marie CZE
4 00.53.46 Hakala Eeva-Liisa FIN
5 00.54.53 Saarinen Henna FIN
