World of O News
Eirik Langedal Breivik (Norway) and Tove Alexandersson (Sweden) won the World Orienteering Championships (WOC) Middle distance in Kuopio, Finland on Wednesday.
This was a big day for Sweden and Norway with four Swedish and two Norwegian medals. All three medals in the women’s class went to Sweden – Sanna Fast taking her first international championships medal with today’s silver medal, and Hanna Lundberg repeating her bronze medal from WOC in Switzerland two years ago. In the men’s class Norway’s Kasper Fosser took silver with Sweden’s Anton Johansson in third.
Men: Breivik in control
See below for a graphical representation of the battle for the medals in the men’s class. Here the runners lose time to the leader when the curve goes downwards, and earn time when the curve goes upwards.
As you can see from the graphic, Anton Johansson had a very fast start, with a more than 20 second lead on the rest of the field at the 6th control. Especially his leg to the 6th control was impressive – and this is also one of the few legs where there were significant differences between the top runners, with several runners in the top-8 – including Breivik and Fosser – losing some seconds. Notably Max Peter Bejmer (Sweden) – one of the few who had the speed for victory, lost nearly 40 seconds here. Also, Gustav Bergman’s time losses to the 3rd and 5th control are notable – losing nearly a minute on these two legs together, effectively the chance for a medal (see legs with routes for all legs further down in the article).
Johansson’s speed however faded from there and onwards – while Breivik and Fosser along with Bejmer and reigning World Champion from Switzerland – Matthias Kyburz – had higher speed. Bejmer also did another big mistake to the 13th control where he lost more than a minute into the control – and finally also half a minute at the 17th control.
Breivik had clearly the highest speed in the last part of the course, increasing his lead steadily to a comfortable 34 seconds victory ahead of Fosser. There was a very tight battle for the last medal, with Kyburz coming one second too late against Johansson after some small time losses towards the end – but the time losses to control 4 (routechoice) and 8 (small mistake into the control) are probably even more irritating for the Swiss.
Women: Alexandersson with highest speed
See below for a graphical representation of the battle for the medals in the women’s class. Simona Aebersold (Switzerland) – the big favourite along with Tove Alexandersson, took the lead on the first two controls, but was out of the battle for the medals after a 2 minute mistake to the 4th control. After that whe never got the speed up to Alexandersson’s level again, and finished in a disappointing 5th place.
Sanna Fast’s speed was nearly up to Alexandersson’s standard in the first half of the leg, but when Alexandersson oncreased the speed on the long leg to the 10th control, Alexandersson went clear and in the end won with more than a minute, and with nearly 2:30 down to Lundberg in third. Although the course was technically challenging, the time differences among the top runners seem to be more from running speed than from technical performance. The other notable mistakse among the top 10 were the mistakes of Natalia Gemperle (Switzerland) to the 3rd control and the mistake of Aleksandra Hornik (Poland) to the 11th control.
Routechoices per leg: Men
Routechoices per leg: Women
Maps with courses
GPS-tracking
WOC Midde Final, Men (13.50)
» See map in omaps.worldofo.com
WOC Midde Final, Women (15.40)
» See map in omaps.worldofo.com
Results
Men
| 1 | Eirik Langedal Breivik | 33:42 | 5:48 | ||
| 2 | Kasper Harlem Fosser | 34:16 | +0:34 | 5:54 | |
| 3 | Anton Johansson | 34:49 | +1:07 | 6:00 | |
| 4 | Matthias Kyburz | 34:50 | +1:08 | 6:00 | |
| 5 | Miika Kirmula | 35:24 | +1:42 | 6:06 | |
| 6 | Gustav Bergman | 35:30 | +1:48 | 6:07 | |
| 7 | Mathieu Perrin | 35:55 | +2:13 | 6:11 | |
| 8 | Max Peter Bejmer | 36:17 | +2:35 | 6:15 | |
| 9 | Lukas Liland | 36:34 | +2:52 | 6:18 | |
| 9 | Daniel Hubmann | 36:34 | +2:52 | 6:18 | |
| 11 | Lucas Basset | 36:39 | +2:57 | 6:19 | |
| 12 | Topi Syrjalainen | 36:44 | +3:02 | 6:20 | |
| 13 | Fabian Aebersold | 36:55 | +3:13 | 6:21 | |
| 14 | Jorgen Baklid | 36:58 | +3:16 | 6:22 | |
| 15 | Eetu Savolainen | 37:00 | +3:18 | 6:22 | |
| 16 | Tomas Krivda | 37:36 | +3:54 | 6:28 | |
| 17 | Jannis Bonek | 37:54 | +4:12 | 6:32 | |
| 18 | Ruslan Glibov | 38:34 | +4:52 | 6:38 | |
| 19 | Jonas Hubacek | 38:36 | +4:54 | 6:39 | |
| 20 | Lauri Sild | 38:40 | +4:58 | 6:40 |
Women
| 1 | Tove Alexandersson | 33:17 | 6:39 | ||
| 2 | Sanna Fast | 34:19 | +1:02 | 6:51 | |
| 3 | Hanna Lundberg | 35:43 | +2:26 | 7:08 | |
| 4 | Andrine Benjaminsen | 36:50 | +3:33 | 7:22 | |
| 5 | Simona Aebersold | 36:57 | +3:40 | 7:23 | |
| 6 | Natalia Gemperle | 37:17 | +4:00 | 7:27 | |
| 7 | Marika Teini | 37:30 | +4:13 | 7:30 | |
| 7 | Evely Kaasiku | 37:30 | +4:13 | 7:30 | |
| 9 | Ida Haapala | 37:33 | +4:16 | 7:30 | |
| 10 | Aleksandra Hornik | 37:46 | +4:29 | 7:33 | |
| 11 | Venla Harju | 37:47 | +4:30 | 7:33 | |
| 12 | Pia Young Vik | 38:31 | +5:14 | 7:42 | |
| 13 | Marie Olaussen | 39:26 | +6:09 | 7:53 | |
| 14 | Sara Hagstrom | 39:30 | +6:13 | 7:54 | |
| 15 | Cecile Calandry | 39:34 | +6:17 | 7:54 | |
| 16 | Tereza Rauturier | 40:54 | +7:37 | 8:10 | |
| 17 | Agnes Noergaard Kracht | 41:04 | +7:47 | 8:12 | |
| 18 | Grace Molloy | 41:12 | +7:55 | 8:14 | |
| 19 | Tereza Smelikova | 41:15 | +7:58 | 8:15 | |
| 20 | Alina Niggli | 41:19 | +8:02 | 8:15 |
