The World University Orienteering Championships (WUOC) starts continues with Long distance in Tartu today with the first start at 0830 CET. There was good online coverage with both text commentary and several split times at yesterdays sprint distance, so expect similar coverage for the long distance today.

Report from WUOC long distance 2006 (source International University Sports):
The Czech runners made their ambitions very clear right away. For the women, Dana Brozkova was going to be hard to beat. In fact, this Czech athlete had won the bronze medal in the senior world championships just two weeks earlier in Denmark. In Kosice, she was defending the university title that she had won at home in Pilsen, in 2004, and she certainly outshone her opponents. Just 13 minutes into the race, she took the lead and from then on in, made it bigger. She crossed the finish line 3 1/2 minutes in front of British Helen Bridle! Russian Larisa Stanchenko came in third.

For the men, the scenario was similar. The current university champion, Michal Smola, left no room for challengers. He flew through the 13.9 km race in 72 minutes, 31 seconds, leaving the runner up, Swiss Matthias Merz, more than two minutes behind. Norwegian Oystein Kvaal Osterbo took the third step on the podium.

Internet resources

• WUOC Online results
• WUOC webpage
• Startlist

Program

The championships starts with the sprint distance at 0900 CET today Wednesday July 30th. The organizers promise live results and live commentary from all the events. There are no qualifications in the WUOC, and each nation is allowed to enter three runners for the sprint and four runners for the middle and long distance.

• Wednesday July 30th 0900 CET: Sprint
• Thursday July 31st 0830 CET: Long
• Friday August 1st 0900 CET: Middle
• Saturday August 2nd 0830 CET: Relay

Tomas Dlabaja (CZE) and Seline Stalder (SUI) took the gold medals over the sprint distance in the World University Orienteering Champs (WUOC) in Tartuu, Estonia today. The course was described as an interesting sprint course - the map will be available at the organizers page later today.

Dlabaja finished 6th at the sprint distance at the World Orienteering Champs both this year in Olomouc and last year in Kiev, and today won gold ahead of Cesa Taanila (FIN) and Scott Fraser (UK).

Stalder finished 12th both at the sprint and at the long distance in Olomouc this year, and today took the gold medal after beating WOC gold-medalist over the long distance, Dana Brozkova (CZE), with 2 seconds. Third in the womens class was Spains Esther Gil Brotons - an excellent result for the Spanish runner!

Good start for Czech Republic

The Czech team have set up the WUOC as one of their main goals this years, and they started very good with the gold medal of Dlabaja and a bronze medal for Dana Brozkova, in the womens class. In addition, Jan Prochazka finished 6th in the mens class.

Results men

1. 63 Tomas Dlabaja Czech Republic 00:13.29,1
2. 72 Vesa Taanila Finland 00:13.39,7
3. 61 Scott Fraser United Kingdom 00:13.42,9
4. 64 Fabian Hertner Switzerland 00:13.49,0
5. 43 Lukas Ebneter Switzerland 00:13.49,1
6. 27 Jan Prochazka Czech Republic 00:13.52,0

• Full results

Results women

1. 143 Seline Stalder Switzerland 00:14.25,9
2. 152 Dana Brozkova Czech Republic 00:14.28,0
3. 163 Esther Gil Brotons Spain 00:14.42,4
4. 159 Rahel Friederich Switzerland 00:14.55,2
5. 150 Bodil Holmström Finland 00:14.55,9
6. 114 Capucine Vercellotti France 00:15.06,9

• Full results

Program

The championships starts with the sprint distance at 0900 CET today Wednesday July 30th. The organizers promise live results and live commentary from all the events. There are no qualifications in the WUOC, and each nation is allowed to enter three runners for the sprint and four runners for the middle and long distance.

• Wednesday July 30th 0900 CET: Sprint
• Thursday July 31st 0830 CET: Long
• Friday August 1st 0900 CET: Middle
• Saturday August 2nd 0830 CET: Relay

Internet resources

• WUOC webpage
• WUOC Online results

The World University Orienteering Championships (WUOC) starts with the Sprint in Tartuu today. Along with the World Military Orienteering Championships, the WUOC is the most important “indepent” championships, and a victory at the WUOC has high prestige. On the starting line in the WUOC is amongst many other top elite orienteers the new Czech World Champion on the Long distance Dana Brozkova.

The Czech National team choose not to participate at the World Cup round in Sälen at O-Ringen to concentrate on the WUOC in Estonia. Also, several runners - for example from the Latvian team - have chosen to make the full program - WOC, WC in Sälen and finally WUOC.

Dana Brozkova is also reigning Sprint champion from the previous WUOC in Slovakia in 2006 along with Øystein Kvaal Østerbø. You can read more about the Sprint in WUOC 2006 in this article from World of O in 2006.

Program

The championships starts with the sprint distance at 0900 CET today Wednesday July 30th. The organizers promise live results and live commentary from all the events. There are no qualifications in the WUOC, and each nation is allowed to enter three runners for the sprint and four runners for the middle and long distance.

• Wednesday July 30th 0900 CET: Sprint
• Thursday July 31st 0830 CET: Long
• Friday August 1st 0900 CET: Middle
• Saturday August 2nd 0830 CET: Relay

Internet resources

• WUOC webpage
• WUOC Online results

Pictures of most runners from this year JWOC in Gothenburg, Sweden, have now been added to World of O Runners. In addition, many pictures from the World Cup round at Sälen, Sweden have been added.

• Results JWOC Sprint with links to runner profiles
• Results JWOC Long with links to runner profiles
• Results JWOC Middle with links to runner profiles
• World of O Runners

Daniel Hubmann (SUI) has a 87 points lead on Thierry Gueorgiou (FRA) before the World Cup Final in Switzerland in October, but as the World Cup points for the two last competitions are added to the current score - and the last World Cup competitions are middle and sprint - chances are still there for a victory for Gueorgiou who is probably very hungry for the overall World Cup victory after the WOC Relay.

A World Cup victory gives 100 World Cup points, 80 points are handed out for second place, 60 for 3rd and 50 for 4th. Thus with two victories for Gueorgiou in the World Cup Finals, Hubmann will need at least two 3rd places to beat Gueorgiou in the overall World Cup. Thus this will be an exciting weekend in Switzerland!

In the womens class, there is less excitement. Anne Margrethe Hausken (NOR) has already secured the overall World Cup victory before the final in Switzerland - as her lead before Minna Kauppi is more than 200 points.

• Overall World Cup standings men
• Overall World Cup standings women

Anne Margrethe Hausken (NOR) took her third World Cup victory in a row at O-ringen in Sweden today - giving her 7 World Cup victories so far this season. That gives her 780 World Cup points so far - with Minna Kauppi in second spot with 567 points. Thus with two World Cup races left, Kauppi will not be able to beat Hausken in the overall World Cup, and Hausken already got the overall World Cup in her pocket ahead of the World Cup final in Switzerland in October.

After victories in sprint and long the last two days, Hausken now also performed in what has been her weakest discipline in the past - the middle distance. A very good day for Norway today with Ingunn Hultgreen Weltzien in second spot. Also a breakthrough for Swiss Angela Wild who finished third today.

- I was very hungry after the World Champs because I was not happy at all with my WOC results. I got a gold in the sprint, but the middle was bad, and the 4th spot in long was not good either. So it was really fantastic to perform so well here, Hausken said after her victory. - I have had focus on the technique today. I had one minute mistake on one control which was hidden in the grass.

• Online results O-ringen - choose “World Cup Herr” and “World Cup Dam” to see the World Cup results.
• Official results should be available at the O-ringen server later on

Daniel Hubmann beat Thierry Gueorgiou with more than 20 seconds from the third last control to the finish - securing him the victory with three small seconds before Gueorgiou in the last of the three World Cup races here at O-ringen in Sälen. - I had a nearly perfect race, but I was not sure if me speed was high enough, Hubmann said after his fantastic finish.

Gueorgiou came to the finish two minutes before Hubmann, and Hubmann had the advantage to run on Gueorgiou’s times in the long run-in from the last control.

Hubmann is now also in the top in the overall World Cup, and is a clear favorite for the overall World Cup which will be decided in the last two World Cup races of the year in Switzerland in the start of October.

• Online results O-ringen - choose “World Cup Herr” and “World Cup Dam” to see the World Cup results.
• Official results should be available at the O-ringen server later on

The World Cup over long distance with pair start at O-ringen in Sälen today brought another victory for Anne Margrethe Hausken (Norway) in the womens class - with Minna Kauppi and Ingunn Hultgreen Weltzien in the next spots. With this she secures her lead in the overall World Cup with 667 points - 167 points ahead of Minna Kauppi in second spot and more than 350 points ahead of the next women. With this Hausken is nearly as dominating as Simone Niggli-Luder was last year. In the mens class Tero Föhr took his second World Cup victory of the year - the first being the middle distance at the World Cup in Oslo in the end of June. Second and third in the mens class were Baptiste Rollier and Dimitriy Tsvetkov.

The format of todays World Cup was interesting - and not popular among all the runners. It was originally supposed to be a mass start, but in April it was decided to be made as a pair start instead. The special thing with this pair start is that the runners had a long first part of the course common, such that the runners starting together could push each other. After that there was one small butterfly - a long common part - and again a small butterfly. Winner in the mens class, Tero Föhr, said after the race that he had had good help from Matthias Merz who he started together with to set the pace in the first part of the course.

Not all runners were happy with the pair start - some of the runners even had to run alone as their “partner” did not start. Another thing many runners - especially the men - complained about is that it is hard both physically and mentally to run a hard long distance World Cup race so soon after the World Championships. The women seem to cope better with this than the men. Of the men getting an individual medal at the World Championships, Thierry Guergiou in 9th spot and Daniel Hubmann in 11th spot were the ones who were highest up on the list today.

• Online results O-ringen - choose “World Cup Herr” and “World Cup Dam” to see the World Cup results.
• Official results should be available at the O-ringen server later on

Anne Margrethe Hausken (Norway - upper picture) continues to dominate the sprint distance with her victory in todays World Cup event at O-ringen in Sälen, Sweden. With this Hausken has taken her third World Cup victory in sprint in a row this year, after winning at the European Champs and the World Champs earlier this year.

Second was Annika Billstam (Sweden - middle picture) and third was Minna Kauppi (Finland - lower picture). All three took medals at the World Champs in Olomouc, Czech Republic last week.

There has been only one rest day after the WOC Relay which ended a tough WOC program Sunday - and at the WOC both Hausken and Kauppi ran the full program with 7 competitions in 8 days. The next two days the World Cup will continue with long and middle distance on the program in Sälen.

• Online results O-ringen
• Official results should be available at the O-ringen server which is currently down due to overload

Peter Öberg (Sweden - upper picture) took his first individual World Cup victory with his win in the sprint at the World Cup event at O-ringen in Sälen, Sweden today. A very popular third place took Thierry Gueorgiou (France - lower picture), who is back in the top after his very dramatic experience at the Relay in the World Championships in Olomouc, Czech Republic two days ago, where Gueorgiou had to break off his race due to an insect bite.

Second was Matthias Merz (Switzerland - middle picture) who is back in the top after a somewhat disappointing World Championships. None of the runners who ran all races in the World Champs managed do to a good performance in the World Cup in Sälen - maybe the program is a bit tough for the runners?

The next two days the World Cup will continue with long and middle distance on the program in Sälen.

• Online results O-ringen
• Official results should be available at the O-ringen server which is currently down due to overload