WOC Relay: Finally for Norway

Norway won gold in the women’s relay after a great team performance – Heidi Bagstevold, Mari Fasting and Anne Margrethe Hausken running steadily from start until finish while the other teams had problems with the tricky and strongly forked courses. A clear silver medal went to Finland with Minna Kauppi on the last leg – Kauppi was very happy to finally get a medal on home ground.

Fight for bronze was very tight between the two biggest profiles of this championship in the women’s class – Simone Niggli (Switzerland) and Tove Alexandersson (Sweden). Both made quite big mistakes on the last leg – but in the end Niggli could take home bronze for Switzerland.

GPS comparison – the fight for the medals

See below for comparisons between Norway/Finland and Sweden/Switzerland on the last leg (click for larger).  Kauppi runs the leg more than a minute faster than Norway’s Hausken, but secure orienteering by Hausken is the way to gold for Norway.

The GPS-track of Sweden and Switzerland is compared below – a lot of mistakes especially by Alexandersson at control 2. Niggli misses number 7 – but keeps the time loss small enough to take home bronze.

Maps / GPS-tracking

Results

1	103		Norway				1:37:53
		1 Heidi Bagstevold					32:48
		2 Mari Fasting		31:36			1:04:24
		3 Anne M. Hausken Nordberg		33:29			1:37:53
2	105		Finland				1:39:07
		1 Venla Niemi					32:28
		2 Anni-Maija Fincke		34:59			1:07:27
		3 Minna Kauppi		31:40			1:39:07
3	101		Switzerland				1:43:44
		1 Sara Luescher					32:44
		2 Judith Wyder		35:52			1:08:36
		3 Simone Niggli		35:08			1:43:44
4	102		Sweden				1:43:58
		1 Emma Johansson					34:15
		2 Annika Billstam		33:04			1:07:19
		3 Tove Alexandersson		36:39			1:43:58
5	108		Czech Republic				1:45:48
		1 Vendula Haldin					37:18
		2 Eva Jurenikova		33:37			1:10:55
		3 Dana Safka Brozkova		34:53			1:45:48
6	104		Russia				1:46:29
		1 Galina Vinogradova					34:45
		2 Irina Nyberg		36:09			1:10:54
		3 Tatiana Ryabkina		35:35			1:46:29

• Full results