Nopesport

The annual Portugal O Meet took place last weekend in the Alentejo region 200km east of Lisbon. The 4 day competition, that is held on Carnival weekend, started with a short race, followed by 2 classic races and ended with a town race.

As usual there were a number of Brits at the races. Top 10 results were Gillian Godfree winning D21E overall and Neville Baker winning H50 every day. On H21E anglo-scot Dave Godfree finished 7th overall just ahead of aussie-scot Ben Rattray who, after winning day 1, was suffering from a calf injury. Interloper's Ben Hartman finished 3rd on H35A. Judith Powell, SWOC, and Alex Ross, DVO, were 8th on D50 and H50. South Yorkshire's Peter Gorvett was 5th on H55. On D65 Kath Rose, MDOC, was 8th and Beryl Pay 9th. Apologies to anyone I've missed.

Other results to note were Heidi Martensson winning all 4 days on the youngest female course, father Jorgen now H45 also winning all 4 days and current classic world champion Thomas Buehrer winning day 2 on H35A by 7 minutes.

For the elite day 2 was the main race being a world ranking event. The Swiss team, in Portugal for a training camp, turned up for this day only. No prizes for guessing the winner on D21E! 11.5km with 495m climb under 6 min k's. An excellent run by Gillian Godfree saw her take 3rd place.

1 SIMONE NIGGLI-LUDER SUI 1:06:08
2 KÄTHI WIDLER SUI 1:11:40
3 GILLIAN GODFREE 1:13:51
4 MARTINA FRITSCHY SUI 1:14:57
5 KAROLIINA SUNDBERG Lynx 1:15:35
6 LEA MÜLLER SUI 1:17:56
7 LAURA KIISKI Kangasala 1:19:56
8 ANNEMARIE SIEBER SUI 1:20:12
9 JOHANNA RYYNÄNEN TuS 1:22:38
10FRANZISKA WOLLEB Sui 1:22:47
11HELEN PALMER SEDS 1:23:34

H21E was dominated by the Swiss team, taking 12 of the top 16 places, as well as domination by past JWOC medalists: Hubmann and Merz have both taken individual gold while Tervo has two short race silvers. 14.7km with 535m climb.

1 DANIEL HUBMANN Sui 1:11:27
2 URS MÜLLER Sui 1:12:39
3 TUOMAS TERVO Rajamäen Rykmentti 1:15:08
3 MATTHIAS MERZ Sui 1:15:08
5 MATTHIAS GILGIENSui 1:15:18
6 ANDREAS MÜLLER Sui 1:15:24
7 MATTHIAS NIGGLI Sui 1:16:14
8 BAPTISTE ROLLIERSui 1:16:59
9 URS ALTORFER Sui 1:17:01
10MARCO POVOA ADFA 1:17:18
11BEN RATTRAY SEDS 1:17:43
22DAVE GODFREE SEDS 1:22:03
27NEIL MARSTON SEDS 1:26:28
48ANTHONY SQUIRE SEDS 1:42:04

Terrain was rolling cork oak planations mostly very fast but with occasional marshy areas and barbed wire fences to slow you down. The orienteering was generally pretty easy due to the high visibility.

Results on the Portugal O meet site at POM Results

Report courtesy of Godders.