MERZ vs. GUEORGIOU

Next weekend there will be a clash between the Swiss and the French runners in Lugano. The french and Belgian Team are coming to the sprint and middle distance championships in Switzerland. Map for Middle distance Championship found on Denis Steinemann's website.

Last year Matthias Merz won this middle distance champs with only 5 seconds ahead of Daniel Hubmann. Daniel will be eager to take revanche but the question is "Will he be in good shape this weekend".
Matthias Merz proved last week to be in excellent shape. He took the title in Sprint and Long distance at the Nordic Championship. But what was even more impressive was his last leg at the relay. Running together with Jani Lakanen and Peter Öberg (not really slow runners). He took the lead just towards the end. And although he choose a very wrong routechoice towards the spectator control the others just followed. It was obvious that they struggled to try to follow Matthias' high speed.
Read about the last week of the Swiss runner on his website.

Thierry Gueorgiou took the gold at the Champs Meeting and managed to close a gap of 5 minutes to SNO-runner Petr Losman to take the Bronze for Kalevan Rasti at 10-mila. He is definitely in great shape and looking forward to run the World Cups the coming months.

Other favorites for this race are Francois Gonon, Damien Renard, and Matthias Müller.
have a look at the the website of these championchips and the startlist of the sprint and middle distance.