World Orienteering Cup 2017 in Latvia |

International Orienteering federation

Tove Alexandersson, Sweden was fastest in the Women’s Final for all but the first half-kilometre and won by 39 seconds. The Czech athlete Vojtech Kral took his first-ever World Cup win.

This was a clear triumph for Alexandersson, who lost little time on a very varied and quite complex course with streets, alleyways, parkland and forest, some parts flat and others with quite steep slopes with contouring legs and some route choice: an interesting and challenging course overall. Mistakes in route execution were made by most of the competitors at some point or other. Second and third places went to Natalia Gemperle, Russia and Sabine Hauswirth, Switzerland, both finishing strongly after being 7th and 9th respectively at the half-way point. Shortly before the end Cat Taylor, Great Britain was holding second place, but she lost a crucial 12 seconds on the final stretch and finished fourth equal with the Finn Merja Rantanen.

Sixth place has been Vojtech Kral’s best until now, achieved on several occasions including this year’s World Championship Sprint Final. Today he was never more than 11 seconds down on the lead, picking up that time between 1.3 and 1.9 km, and was strongest of all on the second half of the course. Fastest on the first half was Tim Robertson, New Zealand, but he then lost 29 seconds before the finish and ended eighth; Daniel Hubmann, Switzerland had a similar experience – second at half-way and finished ninth. Jerker Lysell, Sweden ran consistently throughout and finished second, whilst Swiss athlete Matthias Kyburz came up to third from sixth at half-way.

So ends Round 3 of this year’s World Cup, which gave competitors valuable experience of Latvian conditions, and the organising teams plenty of practice, before next year’s World Championships in Latvia in early August. The final round of the 2017 World Cup is at Grindelwald, Switzerland from 29 September to 1 October.

Leading results

Women

Tove Alexandersson SWE 15:22

Natalia Gemperle RUS 16:01

Sabine Hauswirth SUI 16:04

4= Merja Rantanen FIN & Catherine Taylor GBR 16:10

Galina Vinogradova RUS 16:13

Men

Vojtech Kral CZE 15:08

Jerker Lysell SWE 15:13

Matthias Kyburz SUI 15:15

Martin Regborn SWE 15:26