World of O News
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
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
