Czechia delivered a strong finish to an already great series of Czech achievements at CX80 MTBO World Championship by winning both the women’s and men’s relays on Sunday morning.
The MTBO athletes’ final competition in Poland took place a little further north in terrain that was flatter and faster than the other forest distances.
Strong Finnish start
The men were the first to begin the day’s events and here Finland’s Tomi Nykanen stood out on the first leg, where he was the fastest of all.
There were more than three minutes left to the closest pursuers at the exchange and the future world champions from Czechia (Jan Hasek) had lost more than four minutes.
But even though the relay almost seemed to be decided, it became extremely exciting in the end.
On the second leg, the Finns’ lead shrank, so that both Finland 2 and France 2 closed in and Vojtek Ludvik (CZE) halved the gap to around two minutes at the exchange.
And on the final leg, Krystof Bogar continued the great Czech pace by catching up with the leading Finns and sprinting past André Haga in the very last meters.
Three minutes later, France (Jeremi Pourre, Paul Debray, Armel Berthaud) won a four-team sprint for bronze, ahead of Czechia 2, Switzerland and Lithuania.
Photos: WMTBOC 2025
Fierce competition for gold
In the women’s relay, several nations also reached for the gold medals. Early on the first leg, the hosts from Poland were in the lead, before Finland (Marika Hara) took the lead at the first exchange.
During the second leg, the picture changed completely, so that Denmark (Nikoline Splittorff) was suddenly in front, with Czechia (Lucie Nedomlelova) as the closest pursuer.
Already early on in the final leg, Martina Tichovska (CZE) drove past Camilla Søgaard (DEN) and held on to the lead all the way to the finish. Søgaard drove a safe silver medal home to the defending Danish world champions.
The battle for bronze was between Finland (Ruska Saarela) and Lithuania (Algirda Mickuviene). Saarela, who has won two gold medals previously at the championships in Poland, was the strongest and secured Finnish bronze just over five minutes after the winning time.
Results, World Cup standings, GPS-tracking and free broadcasts are available in IOF LIVE
The 2o25 international season continues in Bulgaria from 18-21 September, where the final World Cup standings are decided over three races.
Top results
Women
1. Czechia (Kamererova, Nedomlelova, Tichovska) 125:23 minutes
2. Denmark (Christoffersen, Splittorff, Søgaard) + 1:23
3. Finland (Hara, Haga, Saarela) + 5:16
4. Lithuania (Umbrasaite, Mickeviciute, Mickuviene) + 6.07
5. Switzerland (Wellenreiter, Lüscher, Jaeggi) + 8:45
6. Sweden (Larsson, Palm, Gustafsson) + 8:47
Men
1. Czechia (Hasek, Ludvik, Bogar) 120:36 minutes
2. Finland (Nykanen, Pokala, Haga) + 0:01
3. France (Pourre, Debray, Berthaud) + 3:16
4. Switzerland (Schnyder, Rieder, Jaeggi) +3:17
5. Lithuania (Kavaliauskas, Ambrazas, Maiselis) +3:19
6. Italy (Rossetto, Dallavalle, Bettega) + 7:37
W20
1.Finland (Kankaanpaa, Hakkinen, Laamanen) 128:27 minutes
2.Czechia (Kadlecova, Stranska, Ryglova) + 1:36
3.France (Colle, Masson, Boussier) +1:38
M20
1. France (Lauret, Leclere, Lesquer) 110:41 minutes
2. Finland (Kenttamies, Pesu, Koskinen) + 0:46
3. Sweden (Löfgren, Svensson, Holmgård) + 10:12