Norwegian Champs: Gueorgiou and Hubmann beat them all

Jan Kocbach August 30, 2008 Events Comments Off on Norwegian Champs: Gueorgiou and Hubmann beat them all

In todays middle distance in the Norwegian Champs middle distanse the Norwegian men did not manage to beat guest runners Thierry Guergiou (FRA) and Daniel Hubmann (SUI) – both finishing in front of the Norwegian Champion Audun Weltzien. Second in the Norwegian Champs was another Swiss runner – Baptiste Rollier – who is allowed to run in the Norwegian Champs as he has been living in Norway since January 1st.

Thus, even on home ground the Norwegians have some work to do to reach their goal of being the leading orienteering nation at the World Championships on homeground in 2010 in Trondheim. Todays Norwegian Champion, Audun Weltzien, has not been in the very top internationally except for his victory at the mass start long distance World Cup race at O-ringen in 2007. Now he did two excellent races at the Norwegian Champs – winning both the long and middle distance – and shows that he will definetely be a man to count on in Trondheim in two years time.

The terrain was again very nicely runnable – you can see the first part of the womens course above. The first part of the course was the most challenging – runners really had to take care to keep full control on the map in the slope.

Women: Second for Andersen

Marianne Andersen – just as Weltzien – took her second victory in the Norwegian Champs with a very clear gold medal in the Middle distance. Second was Mari Fasting – and Anne Margrethe Hausken was even outside the medals. The women in the international class did not manage to give the best Norwegians a fight for the best times.