Gustav Bergman, multiple medalist of the prestigious competition, said that he suffered from the flu before the competition. According to him, athletes should fly less.
Multiple World and European Championship gold medalist in orienteering Gustav Bergman32, took a stand for the environment by traveling to the European Sprint Orienteering Championships in Italy by train.
Bergman started his journey from Stockholm, and arrived at the competition venue in Verona via Berlin and Munich. Bergman, one of Sweden’s toughest men’s orienteers, refuses to fly to the games in Europe. He also traveled to July’s World Cup in Switzerland by train.
– As elite athletes, we fly too much. We should take the train whenever possible, Bergman said to SVT.
Bergman said that he traveled on a loose schedule, so that he had time to go on exercise runs during his vacation to keep his body in shape.
The Swedish orienteer is known for his social opinions. He, for example boycotted Sweden’s O-ringen in 2018, when its sponsors included a defense company.
Out of the final
Bergman has won 14 medals at the World Championships, including relays.
Bergman, who finished second in the Czech World Cup sprint in August, qualified for the final of the individual sprint of the European Championships on Wednesday, where the top 15 from each of the three qualifying heats made it. He was 16th in the three-set and missed the final place by one second.
Bergman said before the competition that he suffered from the flu and thought that he would not fight for the medals. He set himself the goal of defending his third position in the overall World Cup. The European Championships are part of the World Cup calendar.
– It felt just as bad as I had feared. Technically it went really well, so I did what I could. In this condition, there is no need for the finals, but it still feels a bit sad and annoying, Bergman expressed on Instagram.
The ranking of the overall race seems pretty certain, as Bergman is 94 points ahead of Austria, who made it to the finals Jannis Bonekia above. You get 100 points for a win and 80 for second place. Bergman is excluded from the points.
Other tough names were also left in the men’s sprint qualifying, for example the New Zealand sprint specialist and medalist Tim Robertson and experienced Swiss Daniel Hubmann and ending his national team career Florian Howald.
In the men’s sprint final Tuomas Heikkilä ended Finland’s ten-year dry season in sprint orienteering honors and took EC bronze.
Read more: EC bronze! Tuomas Heikkilä broke Finland’s long dry season in sprint orienteering: “I hope it would act as a motivator for young people”
Ladies:
1) Sara Hagström SWE 12.17
2) Tove Alexandersson SWE 12.25
3) Simona Aebersold SUI 12.40
4) Natalia Gemperle SUI 12.45
5) Aleksandra Hornik POL 12.49
6) Lina Strand SWE 13.02
…
11) Venla Harju FIN 13.10
15) Maija Sianoja FIN 13.24
17) Hanne Hilo FIN 13.26
28) Aino Mänkärlä FIN 13.36
39) Miia Niittynen FIN 14.00
Gentlemen:
1) Matthias Kyburz SUI 12.26
2) Kasper Harlem Fosser NOR 12.30
3) Tuomas Heikkilä FIN 12.31
4) Martin Regborn SWE 12.32
4) Ralph Street GBR 12.32
6) Jonatan Gustafsson SWE 12.42
…
26) Teemu Oksanen FIN 13.16
34) Akseli Ruohola FIN 13.22
43) Aaro Aho FIN 13.53