WOC Relay: Gold for Russia!

Dmitriy Tsvetkov decided a very tight and exciting WOC relay for Russia on the last leg – orienteering and running away from Sweden’s Gustav Bergman and the big surprise of the day: Denys Shcherbakov for Ukraine.

Oleksandr Kratov brought Ukraine into the lead after the second leg – sending young Denys Shcherbakov out 30 second ahead of Sweden and Russia. On the first part of the long leg all three teams had the same forking – but then Tsvetkov decided that he wanted to push a bit extra.

– The first three controls – about 2 km – I was running with the Swedish team. Then I decided that it was time to just do my own job. It went very well, and the only mistake I did was about 20 seconds, Tsvetkov commented.

France out on the first leg

Sweden and Ukraine never managed to get closer – so Tsvetkov could run in to gold alone.  Big favourite Switzerland with Matthias Kyburz on the last leg started the last leg less than a minute behind Russia – but never managed to get into the medal fight.  One of the big favourites – France – disappeared already on the first leg after a big mistake from Frederic Tranchand.

Excellent courses with a lot of forking and a mix of short and long legs were offered – and still we had a very tight relay. – This was something very different than Trondheim in 2010 – with bad terrain and little forking, was a comment heard many times in the finish area.

Results

1	38		Russia				1:41:47
		1 Leonid Novikov					34:04
		2 Valentin Novikov		32:16			1:06:20
		3 Dmitriy Tsvetkov		35:27			1:41:47
2	3		Sweden				1:42:37
		1 Anders Holmberg					34:15
		2 Peter Öberg		32:01			1:06:16
		3 Gustav Bergman		36:21			1:42:37
3	9		Ukraine				1:42:55
		1 Pavlo Ushkvarok					34:14
		2 Oleksandr Kratov		31:21			1:05:35
		3 Denys Shcherbakov		37:20			1:42:55
4	4		Switzerland				1:43:39
		1 Matthias Merz					33:26
		2 Daniel Hubmann		33:52			1:07:18
		3 Matthias Kyburz		36:21			1:43:39
5	15		Finland				1:44:55
		1 Mårten Boström					33:58
		2 Jani Lakanen		33:47			1:07:45
		3 Tero Föhr		37:10			1:44:55
6	2		Norway				1:45:00
		1 Øystein Kvaal Østerbø					33:29
		2 Carl Godager Kaas		33:49			1:07:18
		3 Magne Dæhli		37:42			1:45:00

• Full results