World of O News
Minna Kauppi’s gold medal in the middle distance was the first World Orienteering Championships gold medal ever for Finland in the womens class over the middle or short distance. The first short distance race in the World Orienteering Champs was in Czechoslovakia in 1991. Now the Finnish women (and Kauppi also) have gold medals in all disciplines except for the sprint distance.
Best ever for Latvia
Martins Sirmais has been in the World Orienteering elite on the middle distance for several years – winning a silver medal both at the European Champs in Estonia in 2006 and at the European Champs in Latvia earlier this year. However, at the World Champs Sirmais has never managed to repeat his fantastic runs from the European Champs. This year at the WOC Sirmais again did not succeed – finishing up as number 35 at the middle distance. However, another Latvian, Edgars Bertuks, got an all-time-high WOC middle distance position for Latvia with his excellent 9th place from an early start.
Gvodzev for Israel
The last all-time-high position at the WOC 2008 Middle distance was Pavel Gvodzev of Israel with his 25th place. Actually, this was the first time an Israeli qualified for the Middle distance final, and thus all Gvodzev had to do to improve the Israeli record was to get through the course without being disqualified. Gvodzev did an excellent race, and his 25th place is only 4 places behind his 21th place at the long distance at the WOC in Kiev last year.
