Sylvester stage 3: Dupuy & Hus

The third stage of the sylvester 5-days stood completly in the shadow of the tragic death of Swiss elite athlete Pascal Buchs, who passed away yesterday in a skiing accident during a tour in Switzerland. The orienteering community has come to a standstill after this news.

RIP Pascal Buchs

In the women competition, Violette Dupuy delivered a surprising win. Corina Hüni had to settle for second place after a 5.5 min mistake to control 13 which was the most difficult secton of the course. Victoria Stevens finished third, just in front of Eva Örnhagen Jorgensen but they were almost 6 minutes behind. We saw more mistakes than in the previous days. The forest was partly taken down leaving a lot of fallen trees and tracker roads as an additional difficulty so the key was fighting through the green. In the overall standings, nothing changes apart from Dupuy closing in on the top 3 women. With two days remaining, the battle for the podium remains fierce, with at least five or six athletes still in contention.

Official results WE

The men's race saw Wouter Hus bounce back from a disappointing performance the previous day to claim victory, earning the full 1,000 points. Liam Thiels continued his steady form, finishing just one minute behind Hus. Yesterday’s winner, Adam Zridkavesely, secured third place. Meanwhile, Olle Bergstedt, who has performed very consistet, mispunched himself at control 21, costing him valuable points. There are still a lot of things possible in the overall classment and nothing is descided yet. We saw an absent of Michael van Baelen today, so no points for him.

Official results ME

In M18 we saw yet another winner. Mats de Smul took today's stage (with a faster pace than elite category) and is leading the overall standings. But like in the other categories, the race remains highly competitive, with several runners still in contention for the podium spots.

Tomorrow we can expect another fast race where the runners will encounter different terrains. Even the smallest mistakes will be punished. It is possible to have already the overall winner in some of the categories tomorrow.