WOC 2023 Long: Maps and Results

Simona Aebersold (Switzerland) won her first World Championships (WOC) title over the Long distance on homeground today, beating pre-race favourite Tove Alexandersson (Sweden) with half a minute. Kasper Fosser (Norway) won his second WOC Long title in a row after a tough battle with Matthias Kyburz (Switzerland) all the way to the end of the course.

In the women’s class, Andrine Benjaminsen (Norway) took the bronze medal after a very tight battle with Natalia Gemerle (Switzerland), Sara Hagström (Sweden) and Elena Roos (Switzerland) on the last part of the course – where the route choice to the 17th and 20th control was decisive. In the men’s class Olli Ojanaho (Finland) won the bronze medal after an equally tight battle towards the end of the course – in the end Thomas Krivda (Czech Republic) and Emil Svensk (Sweden) were only 14 seconds behind in shared 4th place.

The same route choice to the 20th control was also decisive in the men’s class for the gold medal battle. Kyburz was 20 seconds ahead of Fosser at the control before the long leg, but taking the same slower route choice as Aebersold this is where he lost the gold to Fosser – after seeming to be stronger physically towards the end of the course.

Maps

See links to maps and GPS-tracking below. You can also draw your route for two of the most interesting legs on the course here:

• “Route to Christmas” early edition for the Women’s long leg
• “Route to Christmas” early edition for last long leg in the forest (leg 20 for the women, the most interesting routechoice leg of the day)

WOC 2023 13.7.23 Long Women

» See map in omaps.worldofo.com

WOC 2023 13.7.23 Long Men

» See map in omaps.worldofo.com

How it happend: Women

Alexandersson lost two minutes to Aebersold already on the long leg to the 4th control – and never came into the lead after that mistake. Of the GPS-tracks below, Alexandersson’s track is the red one which makes a mistake before the control, going too far down.

Alexandersson got as close as half a minute to Aebersold after some good legs.

Then Alexandersson did another bad routechoice – along with a lot of other runners. Aebersold was one of the few top runners who saw the routechoice to the right. This gave Aebersold a 1:30 lead – seemingly on a stable way to the gold medal.

It got very exciting again at the long leg to control 20, however. Aebersold had a 1:30 lead, but she took the slower route choice to the left – but the 1:30 lead was enough for Aebersold to win in the end. Both this leg and the leg before was very decisive for the bronze medal battle.

How it happened: Men

The first decisive leg was the long leg to control 5. No big time differences about the favourites here, but Matthias Kyburz and Daniel Hubmann lost time here.

At the 11th control Emil Svensk was up in shared lead with Fosser, but a quite big mistake to control 12 ruined his gold chances.

Krivda probably lost his bronze medal on control 27, searching too early.

Then the first of the two final route choice legs that were very decisive in the women’s class. Here both Ojanaho and Svensk lost more than a minute by going straight.

Then the last very decisive route choice leg. At control 31 Kasper Fosser was 21 seconds behind Kyburz – with Kyburz looking stronger physically at that point. Unfortunately for the Swiss fans Kyburz took the wrong routchoice to the right and lost more than a minute to Fosser.

Results

Women

Men

• Official results