Athletes from 14 nations won gold medals in the Sprint Final – 11 nations in the women’s 13 classes and 8 nations in the men’s. Most successful were the Swiss men who took gold medals in 5 different classes.
Held in the old town district of Hungary’s 9thlargest city, Székesfehérvár, most races were very tight with winning margins of less than a minute. Closest races were in M55 and M85, where the silver medalists were just 5 seconds down on the winners. The tightest women’s class was W40 with a margin of 7 seconds. Tricky navigation in the labyrinth of small streets, alleyways and back yards led to a number of disqualifications for mispunching.
In W85 there were just two competitors, with Brigitte Schmiedeberg, Germany winning by more than 15 minutes. In W45 and W80 the gaps between first and second were 1.16 and 1.15.
Øystein Kvaal Østerbø on his way to victory in M40 Photos: WMOC
The most impressive men’s victory was by the well-known Norwegian athlete Øystein Kvaal Østerbø, taking M40 by 1.06. He was “the best Norwegian sprinter for a long period, with 4thplace in the World Championships Sprint in both 2005 (Japan) and 2010 (Norway”, to quoteworldofo.com. He won silver medals in both forest and sprint relays in his 12thWorld Championships, in Scotland in 2015, and was 3rdoverall in the World Cup back in 2004.
Adolf Kempf SUI, M95, clearly enjoying his course
This year there is one competitor in both W95 and M95, and also in W90. They all completed the 1.09 km course successfully. There was double family success for Monika (W60) and Mario (M65) Ammann, Switzerland.
Lena Nordahl SWE, W95
Monday is a rest day, and competition starts again on Tuesday with the Forest Qualification race.
WMOC 2021 Gold Medalists – Sprint
Women
W35 Katarina Lamlova SVK
W40 Eva Novai HUN
W45 Irita Pukite LAT
W50 Barbara Kastner AUT
W55 Jana Smutna CZE
W60 Monika Ammann SUI
W65 Alena Rosecka CZE
W70 Jurate Uleviciene LTU
W75 Torid Kvaal NOR
W80 Inga Lill Wikingsson SWE
W85 Brigitte Schmiedeberg GER
W90 Sole Nieminen FIN
W95 Lena Nordahl SWE
Men
M35 Eugenii Popov RUS
M40 Øystein Kvaal Østerbø NOR
M45 Samuel Diaz ESP
M50 Thomas Greve Jensen DEN
M55 Ferri Gassner AUT
M60 Lukas Jenzer SUI
M65 Mario Ammann SUI
M70 Raimo Hyyrylainen FIN
M75 Mauno Hanhela FIN
M80 Eric Bucher SUI
M85 Martin Hutzli SUI
M90 Kjell Arne Pettersson SWE
M95 Adolf Kempf SUI