The men’s relay of Tiomila 2009 definitively offered some high suspense during its 9 hours 51 of length. The lead was taken alternatively by Helsingin Suunnistajat, Sävedalen AIK, OK Orion, IFK Göteborg and Södertalje-Nykvarn during the night, until it was kept by Kristiandsand OK for the last two legs. The first half of the race saw the developping of a group of over a dozen of teams with very small time delays, followed by a gap of couple of minutes, which preceeded the second huge group of runners. Right after långa natten, the first group of leaders didn’t stop reducing itself with the time, until it came to 6 runners installed with comfort 4 minutes ahead of all other teams.
The finish of the 9th leg was still very undecided. Holger Hott (Kristiansand OK) gave over 2 seconds only ahead of Håkan Petersson from IFK Göteborg. The next runners – respectively Daniel Hubmann and Mats Haldin – had a fight at the beginning of the last leg, but the World Champion in long distance 2008 soon didn’t let any chance to his Finnish rival, increasing the gap in a constant and sure way. Still, places 2 to 5 were to obtain. After the group of following runners caught Mats Haldin up in the last 1/3 of the race, everything seemed still open. It is finally Thierry Gueorgiou who brought Kalevan Rasti to second place, more than 4 minutes behind Hubmann. OK Linné (Henrik Löfås), Vehkalahden Veikot (Marc Lauenstein) and IFK Göteborg (Mats Haldin) shared places 3 to 5.
“It is a great feeling to win again after last year”, Hubmann said. “It is particularly nice because both victories occured in a very different way. Last year we won on the running, this time we won already in the forest”, he added reliefed. “I am very happy and proud to be part of this club. Winning two times in a row is something special… and we hope it won’t be the last one.”
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