WC: Gold for Thierry and Heli

– I did a good race without any mistakes, only a small one at the first control, Thierry G. said after his victory in todays sprint in the WC final. – I am in good shape for this week, and have trained good for the middle distanse. Tomorrows long distance will be very hard, he continued. Thierry G. won after a tight fight against overall WC leader Daniel Hubmann, and thus there is still excitement regarding the overall WC. Heli Jukola won in the womens class in front of Emma Engstrand and Sara Gemperle. A very good day for the swiss with a total of 5 runners on the podium (two in the womens class and three in the mens class) – and in addition there is Simone who was just outside the podium.

Report from the race
The weather was excellent compared to yesterday- no wind and a little rain just starting as the competition starts. The speaker reports about varied courses. One area is technical with lots of stones and rocks, whereas there are also a lot of different routechoices due to a couple of fences in the terrain.

Women
The first runner punching at the radio control was Lea Müller.

• 11:40. The online results are down just now, but live audio works. Seline Stalder is in the lead in the finish now.

• 11:43. Simone Niggli in the lead at spectator control, 13 seconds before Seline Stalder. The other swiss women are also doing good races.
• 11:47. Possible mispunch for Seline Stalder. Lea Müller is in the lead, but good prewarning for Martiny Fritschy.
• 11:54. Very good race from Heli Jukola. Simone Luder one minute behind.
• 12:06. Victory for Heli Jukola (picture). Emma Engstrand in second place so far.
• 12:10. Top 6 women below.

Men

• 13:15 Very good race by Thierry G. Lead by about 40 seconds before Jarkko Huovilla. Thierry G. did a very good last loop compared to the other runners, and is also in the lead at the first radio control. David Andersson running for third position so far. Emil Wingstedt has lost some time to Thierry G. – now number nine at the spectator control.
• 13:16 Strong start of race for Matthis Müller – only 8 seconds behind Thierry and Jarkko to the first radio control.
• 13:20 Wingstedt into finish to 7. place so far.
• Inverview with Thierry G. after his good race: Thierry said he did a good race without any mistakes – only one at the first control, and then it was quite good for him. He thinks he is in good shape for this week, and he has trained a lot for final middle. He thinks that tomorrows long distance will be hard, and he hopes that he can beat himself(?).
• 13:26: Place number 4 so far for Matthias Müller.
• 13:28: World Cup leader Daniel Hubmann only some seconds behind Thierry at the first radio. Looks like only Hubmann can challenge Thierry today.
• 13:30: Hubmann is prewarned to the spectator control 1 second ahead of Thierry G. Note however that Thierry has been extremely fast on the last loop – nearly 20 seconds ahead of all the others.
• 13:32: Hubmann comes to the spectator control at the excact same time as Thierry G., and has a few “good backs” in front of him which can help him gain speed.
• 13:33: Hubmann is going into the difficult stony area in the end of the course where Thierry G. has been incredibly fast.
• 13:35: 6th place for Holger Hott Johansen so far.
• 13:40: Hubmann is too late. Victory for Thierry G.