News Archives

2006 MTB-WOC: No match for Finland and Russia in the relays

Posted on | July 14, 2006 | Category: News

The World Championships in Mountain Bike Orienteering in Joensuu, Finland, concluded with the relays.

In the men’s race it was Finland’s day. The team of Jussi Mäkilä, Mika Tervala and Tuomo Tompuri took the lead almost from the beginning and kept it to the end. The Russian team tried to catch the Finns but the trio of Victor Korchagin, Maxim Zhurkin and Ruslan Gritsan had to be satisfied with silver. The Swiss team of Beat Schaffner, Beat Oklé and Simon Seger took third place by over three minutes from Denmark.

Finland was also in the lead after the first leg of the women’s race. Maija Lång completed the course one minute faster than the closest rival, Russia.

Ingrid Stengård, from Finland, had a strong start on the second leg, but in the later part of the course she suffered from problems with the back tyre. While Stengård was slowed down by the problems, Anna Ustinova from Russia was able to take the lead and gain a margin of several minutes over the Finn. The anchor, Ksenia Chernykh, had no problems in securing the gold medal. Russia beat Finland by nearly 6 minutes.

The Czech team was only 14th after the first leg due to problems experienced by the lead rider, Michaela Lacigova. However, in the following legs of Marketa Jakoubova and Hana La Carbonara, the team climbed marvellously upwards and took bronze. The Czech Republic was fourth and Austria fifth.