Text from: International Orienteering federation
Swiss women and Swedish men proved best in today’s relays – but it was Sweden’s second team that triumphed with their first team ending fourth. The women’s race featured a frantic sprint finish.
A fascinating last leg in the women’s race saw Sweden’s Tove Alexandersson pitted against Switzerland’s Sabine Hauswirth, with Alexandersson setting out 14 seconds down. Two very determined athletes raced through the intricate terrain with only occasional glimpses of each other for much of the course, and at one stage it looked as though Alexandersson might take the upper hand. But it was Hauswirth who came away from the last control with the slightest of leads and managed to hang on in front all the way to the line.
The Finnish third team took third place, to their own great surprise as much as everyone else’s. Their success was down in particular to last-leg runner Anna Haataja, gold medallist in the Junior World Championships Long Distance race last year, who picked up the necessary four places already by the first TV control and was fully up with the pace after that.
The men’s race saw victory for the Swedish team of Jonas Leandersson, Albin Ridefelt and William Lind. Ridefelt came in first at the end of the second leg having taken over in sixth place, and Lind had a comfortable win by more than a minute. Switzerland with Matthias Kyburz and Daniel Hubmann in the team finished second. Russia were third, with last-leg runner Dmitry Tsvetkov improving their position by 3 places.
Tomorrow is the Sprint in the Event Centre town Cēsis, with qualification races in the morning and the final in the afternoon. The women’s final is over 3.7 km and the men’s 4.2 km, both with a planned winning time of 15 minutes, and both can be followed live on IOF LiveCenter. The women’s final starts at 16.00 and the men’s at 17.00, local time.
Leading results, Relay (first-to-finish teams only for each nation)
Women
Switzerland (Elena Roos, Julia Gross, Sabine Hauswirth) 1:43:35
Sweden (Sara Hagström, Emma Johansson, Tove Alexandersson) 1:43:36
Finland (Kirsi Nurmi, Miia Niittynen, Anna Haataja) 1:45:25
Russia 1:51:44
Great Britain 1:52:29
Latvia 1:53:21
Men
Sweden (Jonas leandersson, Albin Ridefelt, William Lind) 2:06:21
Switzerland (Florian Howald, Matthias Kyburz, Daniel Hubmann) 2:07:29
Russia (Dmitrii Nakonechnyi, Valentin Novikov, Dmitry Tsvetkov) 2:07:52
Norway 2:10:14
Latvia 2:10:51
France 2:12:37
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