Both the women’s and men’s titles saw new faces at the top of the podium, as the European Championships in Belgium concluded with the individual sprint in Lier on Sunday afternoon.
In the men’s category, France’s Mathias Barros Vallet won ahead of Norwegians Kasper Fosser and Eirik Langedal Breivik, while Norway took gold in the women’s category with Pia Young Vik, who was three seconds faster than Hanna Lundberg (SWE), while Inka Nurminen (FIN) also won her first individual international championship medal with a bronze.
As in the morning’s qualification, the courses were run in the centre of Lier with the finish at the city’s central square.
Before the athletes could get that far, they had to complete 3.6 or 4.1 kilometres (women/men) of demanding sprint courses in the old town. The sprint finals featured a mix of short legs in detailed areas and longer legs where many options had to be taken into consideration in a short time.
Strong French finish
Already in the morning’s qualification, Mathias Barros Vallet had shown strong form by winning his qualification heat and he continued in the final. At the arena passage he was three seconds behind Kasper Fosser. But on the last loop he was superb and took 15 seconds off the Norwegian at control 14, which turned out to be decisive.
At the finish, Vallet was nine seconds faster than Fosser, while Eirik Langedal Breivik showed that his superb qualities in middle distance races also can earn him medal in sprints.
A big surprise for Vallet, whose best international result before today was a 10th place at the World Cup sprint in Olten last year.
Mathias Barros Vallet celebrates his championship title. Photo: Silke van Rooy / EOC 2025
Another surprise in the women’s race
The surprises continued in the women’s race, where it was also a close competition.
Pia Young Vik was only fourth fastest at the arena passage, but a strong finish, where the 22-year-old Norwegian avoided mistakes while the competitors lost time, meant that she ended up with the victory.
Hanna Lundberg had the fastest split times until the fourth-last position, but Vik’s fast finishing pace decided fight for the gold medal today.
Simona Aebersold (SUI) was on her way to the gold halfway through today’s sprint, but a big time loss at control 11 pushed her down to fifth place.
Instead, Inka Nurminen seized the opportunity and ran into her first individual medal in third place.
Women’s podium after a thrilling sprint race in Lier. Photo: Silke van Rooy / EOC 2025
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This brings the European Championships to a close in Belgium after three exciting races with challenging, high-quality competitions in three different cities in Flanders.
The final and decisive round of the World Cup will be held in Switzerland on the last weekend of September.