ST. GALLEN – Every second year the Academic Sports Association Zurich organises an endurance team event from St. Gallen to Zurich over a distance of 80.1 km, called SOLA DUO. A team consists of two persons, one is a runner, the other accompanies the runner on a bike. They can change between themselves as many times as they want, but the bike must always accompany the runner. The start of this event is at midnight near St. Gallen University. Last Friday night, more than one hundred teams accepted this challenge and started the long way down to Zurich University Sports Center next to the FIFA Headquarters. Although the time is measured, the main goal of this event is to finish.
Thomas Mörgeli, Head of the Organising Committee and also Head of the Swiss Universiade team in Kazan: “It’s always a very special atmosphere to see these 200 runners and bikers moving from midnight until the early morning, smoothly, without any noise, just trying to follow their own goals. Some of the teams change often between the runner and biker, some others try to continue in the same formation and rhythm as long as possible. When they arrive in Zurich in the early morning, it’s always a very emotional moment, both for the participants and the organizers”, Mörgeli stated.
This year 53 men’s duo, 13 woman’s duo and 32 mixed teams finished the SOLA DUO. The fastest men team, Stefan Michel/Stefan Mühlemann from Zurich finished in 5:46:29 hours, while the fastest female team, Celestine Dünner/Marina Muhl from Schaffhausen finished in 6:45:21. Olivia Kurtz/Philipp Färber were the strongest mixed team with 5:56:15.
Results
(Source: Leonz Eder/SUSF – pictures: Nick Soland)