Ida Bobach, Denmark and Matthias Kyburz, Switzerland both enjoyed convincing victories in the first race of the second round of this year’s World Cup, a Long Distance race held near Halden in Norway.

Tove Alexandersson, Sweden, who won all three individual races in the first round in January, had to settle for second place today, finishing 1.05 down on Ida Bobach. “I planned my routes carefully, in particular to find routes avoiding the craggy steep ground”, said Ida. She then executed them successfully and with good speed, finding the gaps in the lines of crags shown on the map. She passed the arena a minute up on Tove, and held her concentration to keep that margin to the end. Third place went to the consistent Russian Svetlana Mironova, more than 5 minutes down on Ida’s time.

Matthias Kyburz confirmed yet again that he can master all formats with a victory by 1 second short of 2 minutes over Thierry Guorgiou, France, posting an impressive time of just under 90 minutes for the hilly and technically challenging 14.4 km course. Sweden’s men had a good day with three in the top six, the fastest being Gustav Bergman in third spot.

This World Cup round continues with a Sprint Relay in Norway on Friday and Sprint and Middle Distance races in Sweden on Saturday and Sunday. 170 men and 133 women in all, from 32 nations, are taking part in this round.

Women

1. Ida Bobach DEN 1:07:17; 2. Tove Alexandersson SWE 1:08:22, 3. Svetlana Mironova RUS 1:12:45, 4. Nadiya Volynska UKR 1:13:36, 5. Ida Marie Næss Bjørgul NOR 1:13:43, 6. Anne Margrethe Hausken Nordberg NOR 1:13:55, 46. Lizzie Ingham NZL 1:23:26, 79. Laura Robertson NZL 1:42:14

Men

1. Matthias Kyburz SUI 1:29:57, 2. Thierry Gueorgiou FRA 1:31:56, 3.  Gustav Bergman SWE 1:32:30, 4.  Daniel Hubmann SUI 1:33:36, 5.  Olle Boström SWE 1:33:52, 6.  William Lind SWE 1:33:55, 65. Tim Robertson NZL 1:53:09, 68. Matt Ogden 1:54:34, 89. Shamus Morrison NZL 2:12:52, 91. Toby Scott 2:15:59