Switzerland’s Matthias Kyburz and Judith Wyder claimed the respective men’s and women’s sprint titles at the first round of the 2016 Orienteering World Cup in Poland ©IOF

Switzerland’s Matthias Kyburz and Judith Wyder claimed the respective men’s and women’s sprint titles at the first round of the 2016 Orienteering World Cup in Wroclaw.

Kyburz registered a time of 14min 33sec in the Polish city to finish one second faster than team-mate Daniel Hubmann, while Sweden’s Jonas Leandersson was third in 14:38.

"It was really a very challenging course," said Kyburz.

"I had to stop at some controls because I hadn’t worked out my route of choice to the next control."

In the women’s class, Wyder won in 13:53, a time eight seconds quicker than runner-up Maja Alm of Denmark.

Third-place was shared between Sweden’s Tove Alexandersson, Finland’s Marika Teini and Ukraine’s Nadiya Vloynska, all of whom clocked 14:22.

Switzerland topped the sprint relay podium ©IOF
Switzerland topped the sprint relay podium ©IOF

The men had to find 25 controls on their 4.2 kilometres course, while the women had a course of 3.5km with 22 controls.

Kyburz and Wyder had earlier won their qualification heats.

There was also success for Switzerland in the sprint relay as Rahel Friederich reached the finish line a mere four seconds ahead of Sweden’s Helena Jansson in Trzebnica.

The Swiss team, which also featured Wyder, Kyburz and his brother Andreas, led throughout and finished in a time of 1 hour 02min 24sec.

Sweden were followed onto the podium by Denmark, third in 1:02:54.

The second round of the 2016 Orienteering World Cup, which doubles as the European Championships, is scheduled to take place in Jeseník in Czech Republic from May 21 to 28.