CZECH TEAM TRIUMPHS AT OUTDOOR TROPHY 2010

One hundred and fifty extreme sportsmen and women tackled four demanding disciplines in immensely challenging stages at the ninth running of the outdoortrophy on Saturday 14 August in Lingenau/Vorarlberg, Austria.
 
A Czech victory unfolded in front of the eyes of the entire extreme sports world, including World and European champions, men and women, pros and amateurs and top athletes from 10 nations.



The relay competition, which includes mountain running, paragliding, wild water kayaking and mountain biking, is one of the hardest in the world – at least the weather gods were kind: the athletes were able to complete their fight against the elements in perfect water and wind conditions on race day.
 
INTERNATIONAL STARS COMPETE

An extremely high level of competition was clear right from the start of the mountain running
race from the centre of the village of Egg.  Mountain running world champion Helmut Schiessl
was there as were top Italian athlete Gerd Frick (Zermatt marathon winner) and the two Czech mountain running stars Jan Havlicek and Robert Krupicka.  The latter was the fastest to complete the 12km distance with 1,100m altitude difference in 1:06 hours to take his team "Opavanet /
Tilak" into the lead ahead of Czech runners-up "Speed 8" and Schiessl's team "Land Rover
Team Hörburger".



Krupicka handed over to paraglider Jan Skrabalek, who managed to defend the team's lead with the second best time in this stage.  The fastest flyer was Austrian Jakob Herrmann (Land Rover Team Hörburger) who took his team to second place.  

There was even more excitement to come: kayaker Tomas Slovak, who was first into the water, was also the first to hand over to the mountain bikers and the field became even tighter in his wake.  Austria's national kayaking champion Gerhard Schmid, a member of "Telekom Team Südtirol" who were in fact favourites to win, battled his way through the rapids to gain a top time, taking his team to third place and handing over to Italian Hannes Pallhuber so that he could launch a final attack on the 31.4 km mountain biking stage.

But the favourites didn't live up to expectations. Exceptional mountain biker Jaroslav Kulhavy (who is making a severe impact on the World Cup XC Series, secured victory for his team "Opavanet / Tilak" with a lead of 00:03:04 on the start to finish time - the first Czech triumph in nine years of outdoortrophy.  Czech victory was completed by "Speed 8" taking second place; Pallhuber and team "Telekom Südtirol" had to be satisfied with bronze.



ANNIVERSARY TROPHY TO COME

The tenth anniversary of the outdoortrophy will take place once again next year.  Extreme sportsmen and women will be keen to capture this anniversary trophy as the catchphrase “We'll be back” was heard amongst the athletes.  For further info on this exciting format of extreme racing, visit www.outdoortrophy.com.

CAPTION: Extreme challenge: the outdoortrophy is the unofficial world championship of outdoor sports.