WOC Middle: The king is back!

Thierry Gueorgiou (FRA) took the gold medal at the WOC middle distance after a very strong finish. At the spectator control he was equal in time with the Czech home favourite Michal Smola (CZE), but Gueorgiou had a much stronger finish, and could run into the finish with the French flag in his hand, knowing that he had secured his sixth individual WOC gold medal – the fifth in his favourite discipline, the middle distance. His impressive middle distance series is 2003 (Switzerland), 2004 (Sweden), 2005 (Japan), 2007 (Ukraine) and now 2008 (Czech Republic).

The king is back

Gueorgiou – the king of middle distance – was completely dominating in world orienteering elite last year, but has been more unstable this year. It looked like he was back at the World Cup round in Norway in the end of June where he did what looked like a fantastic run in the chasing start, but when he came to the finish the speaker could tell him the disappointing news that he had forgot one of the butterfly loops and was disqualified. But with the gold medal at the World orienteering Champs here in Olomouc the king of the middle distance is back!

First middle distance medal sine 1991 for Czech Republic

Czech Republic has not taken a medal at the middle/short distance since last time the WOC was held in Czech Republic, where Petr Kozák took the gold medal. Now Michal Smola took a very popular silver medal – after being at exactly the same second as Valentin Novikov at the last control.

Still no middle medal for Switzerland

Switzerland has never taken a medal on the middle distance, Thomas Bührer (1995) and Christian Aebersold (1991) being closest. Now Daniel Hubmann got Switzerland another 4th place after being beaten by Novikov by only 8 seconds.

Results

Results are available at the organizers website.

• Results WOC middle men
• Maps will be available after the women final.