Olympedia – Cross-Country, Men

Cross-Country, Men

Date	23 August 2008
Status	Olympic
Location	Laoshan Shandi Zixingche Chang, Beijing
Participants	50 from 33 countries
Format	35.6 kilometres.

Date

23 August 2008

Status

Olympic

Location

Laoshan Shandi Zixingche Chang, Beijing

Participants

50 from 33 countries

Format

35.6 kilometres.

There was little doubt who was the favorite – Julien Absalon of France. Absalon was the defending champion and had won the World Championships in 2004-2007. The race was an eight-lap affair of 36 km., which was run in extreme heat. Absalon went to the front on the second lap and was never headed. He won the gold medal by 1:07 over his teammate, Jean-Christophe Peraud. The race for the bronze was close, as two-time Under-23 world champion Nino Schurter of Switzerland just edged his teammate Christoph Sauser by two seconds. Absalon’s gold made it three straight for France in this event as Miguel Martinez had won in 2000. One interesting competitor was Belgium’s Sven Nys. Nys was a multiple World Champion in cyclo-cross, which is a winter sport combining some elements of mountain biking with running cross-country over obstacles. Nys had difficulty with the heat in Beijing and placed ninth.

Pos	Competitor	NOC	Time	Margin
1	Julien Absalon	FRA	1-55:59	–	Gold
2	Jean-Christophe Péraud	FRA	1-57:06	at 1:07	Silver
3	Nino Schurter	SUI	1-57:52	at 1:53	Bronze
4	Christoph Sauser	SUI	1-57:54	at 1:55
5	Marco Aurelio Fontana	ITA	1-59:59	at 4:00
6	Christoph Soukup	AUT	2-00:11	at 4:12
7	Liam Killeen	GBR	2-00:14	at 4:15
8	Iñaki Lejarreta	ESP	2-00:21	at 4:22
9	Sven Nys	BEL	2-01:00	at 5:01
10	José Antonio Hermida	ESP	2-01:01	at 5:02
11	Manuel Fumic	GER	2-01:16	at 5:17
12	Oli Beckingsale	GBR	2-01:25	at 5:26
13	Marek Galiński	POL	2-01:29	at 5:30
14	Cédric Ravanel	FRA	2-01:38	at 5:39
15	Burry Stander	RSA	2-01:58	at 5:59
16	Moritz Milatz	GER	2-02:59	at 7:00
17	Fredrik Kessiakoff	SWE	2-03:09	at 7:10
18	Jaroslav Kulhavý	CZE	2-03:20	at 7:21
19	Roel Paulissen	BEL	2-03:30	at 7:31
20	Geoff Kabush	CAN	2-03:55	at 7:56
21	Rubinho Valeriano	BRA	2-05:19	at 9:20
22	Ji Jianhua	CHN	2-05:29	at 9:30
23	András Parti	HUN	2-06:00	at 10:01
24	Kashi Leuchs	NZL	2-06:30	at 10:31
25	Jakob Fuglsang	DEN	2-06:41	at 10:42
26	Leonardo Páez	COL	2-06:46	at 10:47
27	Darío Gasco	ARG	2-07:04	at 11:05
28	Carlos Coloma	ESP	2-09:05	at 13:06
29	Adam Craig	USA	–	at 1 lap
30	Yader Zoli	ITA	–	at 1 lap
31	Klaus Nielsen	DEN	–	at 1 lap
32	Filip Meirhaeghe	BEL	–	at 2 laps
33	Wolfram Kurschat	GER	–	at 2 laps
34	Rudi van Houts	NED	–	at 2 laps
35	Bilal Akgül	TUR	–	at 2 laps
36	Cristóbal Silva	CHI	–	at 2 laps
37	Bart Brentjens	NED	–	at 2 laps
38	Emil Lindgren	SWE	–	at 2 laps
39	Daniel McConnell	AUS	–	at 2 laps
40	Chan Chun Hing	HKG	–	at 2 laps
41	Yury Trofimov	RUS	–	at 2 laps
42	Serhiy Rysenko	UKR	–	at 3 laps
43	Todd Wells	USA	–	at 3 laps
44	Seamus McGrath	CAN	–	at 3 laps
45	Mannie Heymans	NAM	–	at 3 laps
46	Kohei Yamamoto	JPN	–	at 3 laps
47	Federico Ramírez	CRC	–	at 5 laps
48	Antipass Kwari	ZIM	–	at 6 laps
DNF	Florian Vogel	SUI	–	–		1
DNF	Robin Seymour	IRL	–	–		2

Pos

Competitor

NOC

Time

Margin

Julien Absalon

FRA