Trin/Digg, August 8, 2002

On the stage of the WOC, the urban sprint area in Rapperswil and the tough endurance test area of the Eschenberg yield to a jewel of a special kind in Grisons. Spuschament, Manalla, Foppa or Val Pagaun: Already the sound of the names of villages lulls the visitor into a different world: We find ourselves in an enchanted forest. Several hills, after rockfall beautifully rounded over thousands of years of erosion, are covered with a juicy-green grass carpet. Magically green. The runner hovers through uncountable numbers of sinkholes like over a quilt; he moves around re-entrants and hills and takes evasive action around impressive boulders. Pre-alpine? Norwegian? Swiss? It has it all. By all means, it is just unique!

While trying to cope with all the visual impressions, the scout holds his breath and comes to a halt. A distant murmur. Deep down, more that 200 meters below but only a stone's throw (admittedly a pretty long one) away, the Vorderrhein river rushes through the Versam gorge towards the sea.

Let's go on now! We cross hikers on their planned routes. A tank barrier negatively surprises the runner, but not more than a cosmetic flaw. We do not encounter the wilderness in Trin/Digg. The forest is thoroughly kept in shape. The new middle-distance world champions will be and have to be able to run fast. Equally fast the best - just on route with a promising split time - might lag behind in case of a mistake: wrong re-entrant, wrong boulder... The enchanted forest will give birth to a complete world champion only.