Koretzky, who belonged to that successful French squad on Wednesday, beat by 1,18 minutes New Zealand’s Anton Cooper while Andrey Fonseca became the first rider of his country to capture a medal for Costa Rica, finishing 3rd at 1,19 minutes.
Great-Britain’s Grand Ferguson, one of the early leaders, came in 4th half a minute off the podium while Dominic Zumstein was the best Swiss rider in 5th place ahead of Belgium’s Kevin Panhuyzen and Italy’s Lorenzo Samparis. Swiss Andri Frischknecht, one oft he favorites, ended at a far 14th place.
Koretzky had a hard time believing he just became World Champion even after receiving his gold medal at the prize givings. „A second gold medal within 24 hours is just unbelievable, it’s just too much,” he told the press. “It has been quite a hard fight as I didn’t have a good start at all, I was only 6th or 7th after the start-lap,” he also said.
“Then I felt I had nothing to lose after doing so well yesterday and I fought as hard as I could to get back at the top. I was able to take the lead during the first full lap,” added the young Frenchman who kept on increasing his advance in the following loops on his closest rivals.
Both Cooper and Fonseca where very moved by their excellent performance and their podium finish. “This will certainly boost our discipline in New Zealand which is not such a great Cross Country area, I’m amazed by this result,” said the 17-year-old Kiwi, only 13th after the start lap before moving up to 5th place at the beginning of his last round.
Fonseca fought very hard too for his unexpected podium finish. Interestingly enough he was only beaten in the final sprint by Cooper. He has always been in 2nd place until the last meters of the race. He needed some time to recover from his efforts after his violent effort. “That’s just crazy, nobody will believe this at home, this a major breakthrough for our sport in Costa Rica,” said the 18-year-old Latin American. “I wish to thank all my staff and my friends who helped me so much in recent years, we’ll have a great party later on this night. This is just wonderful.”
PkL |
Another gold medal for France. 
