The crowning glory of a strong season: Kyburz wins the European Championship title in the orienteering sprint

class=”sc-29f61514-0 icZBHN”>

Matthias Kyburz, the world’s number 1 orienteer, won the gold medal in the sprint at the European Championships in northern Italy.

The 33-year-old from Fricktal crowns his almost perfect season. At the home world championships two and a half months ago in Flims-Laax, he won gold in the middle distance and relay as well as silver in the long distance. In Verona – in the middle of the city and through historic streets – he is now off to a perfect start at the European Championships.

Kyburz performs an improvement run in the sprint. With a winning time of 12:26 minutes, he took the lead for the first time in the third split after more than seven minutes. At the finish, a 25-minute battle begins for Kyburz. The Norwegian Kasper Harlem Fosser is one second faster than Kyburz at the penultimate split two minutes before the finish. At the finish, Fosser lost five seconds to the Swiss.

The Finn Tuomas Heikkila secured bronze behind Kyburz and Fosser. Of the six Swiss starters in the final, Joey Hadorn (7th) and Florian Attinger (9th) also made it into the top ten. For Florian Howald, his last performance as a professional ended in disappointment. The multiple European and World Championship medalist, who is ending his career, will be eliminated from qualifying tomorrow morning.

Bronze for Aebersold

Among the women, 28-year-old Swede Sara Hagström is in a class of her own. The favorite, 25-year-old Simona Aebersold from Zeeland (number 1 in the world in orienteering/number 2 in the world in sprinting) has to settle for the bronze medal.

After half the distance, Aebersold was still in the lead. At the finish, Aebersold lost 23 seconds to Hagström and 15 seconds to Tove Alexandersson, another Swede. Natalia Gemperle (32) finished fourth, missing the medal spot by five seconds. (SDA)

Source : Blick