World of O News
Swiss dominance continues on tricky middle distance: Another one for Hubmann in the mens middle distance at the World University Orienteering Championships (WUOC) in Spain. Sweden also showed that they have top runners: Double Sweden with Forsgren on top among the women.
The Swiss men took their third gold medal of three possible – Martin Hubmann won the middle ahead of Zsolt Lenkei (Hungary) and Adam Chromy (Czech Republic). Lilian Forsgren won the womens middle distance ahead of Anna Forsberg and Anna Serrallonga (Spain).
Tricky, tricky, tricky
After tricky long and sprint races the previous days – the middle distance was in a very different terrain (see map of bronze medalist Adam Chromy above) – but still with very challenging orienteering.
– [It] was a deserted terrain with low pine trees, with low visibility and difficult direction keeping. Because of it, I decided to read almost every detail on the map – it is slower, but safe. I am pleased that this tactic was successful, bronze medalist Adam Chromy wrote in his map archive after the race. – Yes! Very careful tactic and run without significant mistakes (one 30′ + some very small ones) gained second bronze medal, this time from middle, the Czech runner commented.
The Team Canada Blog wrote the following comment about the terrain:
Generally, the feeling was that the terrain was not remarkably difficult but for the area the controls, as they were often tucked behind large tufts of shrub. People would find that they were very, very close, but unable to find the actual control. Then they would bail out to a nearby feature and try again only to discover it was on the other side of where they were looking. Even the Martin Hubmann (the winner) stated in his interview that he felt he got lucky quite a few times, and the Team Sweden coach said their guys found themselves getting to where they thought the control was, couldn’t find it, and then bailed out too quickly. They were often very close, but didn’t have good attack points to be really certain of where they were.
The World University Orienteering Championships finishes off with relay today. Results will be available during the competition at the WUOC 2012 page.
Map
Results
Men
1 148 Hubmann, Martin Switzerland SUI 32:49
2 161 Lenkei, Zsolt Hungary HUN 35:10
3 109 Chromý, Adam Czech Rep CZE 35:41
4 201 Procházka, Jan Czech Rep CZE 36:00
5 173 Martner, Ola Sweden SWE 36:40
6 146 Michiels, Yannick Belgium BEL 37:18
7 132 Paulins, Arturs Latvia LAT 37:40
8 143 Šmehlik, Eduard Czech Rep CZE 37:41
9 125 Bråten, Vetle Ruud Norway NOR 37:48
10 179 Dallavalle, Roberto Italy ITA 38:18
Women
1 353 Forsgren, Lilian Sweden SWE 29:39
2 315 Forsberg, Anna Sweden SWE 31:38
3 348 Serrallonga Arqués, Anna Spain ESP 32:35
4 351 Duchová, Iveta Czech Rep CZE 33:22
5 344 Shandurkova, Iliana Bulgaria BUL 34:18
6 334 Bachman, Anna Sweden SWE 34:32
7 324 Fershalova, Karina Russian Federation RUS 34:42
8 338 Orr, Hollie Elizabeth United-Kingdom of Great Britai GBR 34:44
9 365 Aebi, Bettina Switzerland SUI 34:48
10 373 Morrison, Kate New Zealand NZL 34:54
