World Cup Sprint Qual: Results

[Updated with map] Olav Lundanes, Matthias Kyburz, Tove Alexandersson and Judith Wyder were heat winners when the World Cup started with a qualification in Tasmania’s second largest city, Launceston, today. The World Cup continues with the sprint final tomorrow morning 09:46 local time (23:46 CET this evening).

The qualification race was less of an urban sprint than what we will see in the final – held in a hilly area around the botanical garden with 80% on paths/roads and the rest in terrain. Therefore the results might not be fully representative for what we will see in the final.

– It will be something completely different. Today there was some orienteering, but tomorrow there will be a lot more pure running, heat winner Olav Lundanes commented the race to Orientering.no.

Note that the following is based on unofficial results.

Robertson out

Although today’s qualifier was mostly a formality with nearly all athletes going to the final, most of the best sprinters on the start line used the opportunity to show that they are in good shape and ready to fight for the top places in the final. The biggest surprise in today’s qualifier was maybe that New Zealand’s reigning Junior World Champion sprint failed to qualify to the final – finishing only 23rd in heat B. Also Swedish Filip Dahlgren missed the cut with his 22nd place in heat A. Reigning World Champion also struggled, but just managed to qualify with his 18th place.

Swiss runners in sprint shape

At the top of the results list, one can note that the Swiss men are in sprint shape. In heat A it was 3 x Switzerland on the top with Matthias Kyburz, Daniel Hubmann and Fabian Hertner. In Heat B Olav Lundanes surprised positively with good sprint shape – winning ahead of Gustav Bergman and Andreas Rueedlinger. Morten Boström was all the way down in 12th – but then again this is only a qualification race.

In the women’s race the Swiss runners also showed impressive shape with 4 runners in the Top 3. Tove Alexandersson (Sweden) won heat A ahead of Rahel Friederich and Elena Roos (both Switzerland). Heat B was won by Judith Wyder (Switzerland) ahead of Lena Eliasson (Sweden) and Julia Gross (Switzerland).

Time schedule

• Friday January 2nd 23:00 23:46 CET (January 3rd 09:00 09:46 local time): Sprint Final women. 00:45 01:30 CET/10:45 11:30 local time: Sprint Final men. (see startlists). The last starter in the women’s A-final is Judith Wyder at 00:25 CET (10:25). The last starter in the men’s A-final is Olav Lundanes at 02:09 CET (12:09).
• Wednesday January 7th 23:00 CET (January 8th 09:00 local time): Middle distance
• Friday January 9th 23:00 CET (January 10th 09:00 local time): Long distance

Follow the races at the World Cup Tasmania LIVE page – see also All You Need To Know about the Tasmania World Cup

Results

Below results are the unofficial results. Official results will be available at the World Cup Live Oceania page.