Neff just misses the podium: Forster and Frei win EM medals in Cross Country

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Lars Forster wins silver at the European Championships in Krynica-Zdroj, Poland. The 29-year-old from St. Gallen is only beaten in Cross Country by the surprising Romanian Vlad Dascalu.

Forster, who celebrated his second World Cup victory a week earlier in Leogang, is always at the front during the race. In the penultimate lap he launches an attack that tears the leading group apart, but he is unable to take a decisive lead.

Another two Swiss in the top 10

It is different for Dascalu, who took the lead right at the start of the last lap and left many of his competitors behind on the climb. The 25-year-old, who was not one of the first contenders for a medal beforehand, crosses the finish line 14 seconds ahead of Forster. The Swiss, who won the European Championship title in 2018 and 2021, now has to settle for silver. The bronze goes to the Italian Luca Braidot.

With Thomas Litscher and Marcel Guerrini, two more Swiss made it to the top 10. They finished eighth and ninth. Many top drivers have decided not to participate in the European Championship. These include ten-time world champion Nino Schurter and Olympic silver medalist Mathias Flückiger, as well as defending champion Tom Pidcock.

Neff has to let Frei go

Sina Frei rides to bronze at the European Championships in Poland. She held onto 3rd place for almost the entire race, only at the start of the third of a total of five laps did the Zurich native drop back to fifth. But the 25-year-old again pushed past two competitors to secure her first-ever European Championship medal among the elite. Frei had triumphed several times in the juniors.

However, a higher ranking was out of reach for the VC Miles driver. 21-year-old Puck Pieterse from the Netherlands led the race almost from the start and took her first gold medal at the European Championships in this discipline. The equally old Austrian Mona Mitterwallner takes 39 seconds from the Swiss on her way to silver.

Frei occasionally rides on the back wheel together with her teammate Jolanda Neff and a Swiss double coup like in Tokyo seems to be a possibility. However, Neff falls back to 5th place in the third round and thus out of contention for the medals. In fourth place, the East Swiss is 15 seconds behind bronze.

With Steffi Häberlin, a third Swiss woman made it to the top 10 in ninth place. (SDA/mab)

Source : Blick