WSOC 2015: Lamov and Alexandersson get the gold in the Sprint

Andrey Lamov and Tove Alexandersson conquered the first individual titles of the World Ski Orienteering Championships WSOC 2015. They are, for the best reasons, the two major figures of the Championships so far.

Sharing the individual titles of the recent European Ski Orienteering Championships, they were the great entertainers of the final Sprint held the early afternoon today, in Budor, Norway. We speak about the Russian Andrey Lamov, the Bulgarian Stanimir Belomazhev and the Swedish Erik Rost, the three athletes who, in this order, occupied the podium in the Men Elite class. After the gold medal won yesterday in the Mixed Sprint Relay, in partnership with Iuliia Tarasenko, the Russian Andrey Lamov returned to show up at the highest level, getting to overcome all his opponents. Lamov was the fastest with a time of 16:04, leaving behind him, with the difference of four thin seconds, the European Champion of Sprint in title, Stanimir Belomazhev. Rost finished third with 15 seconds more than the winner. Great figure of the 2013 World Championships, in Kazakhstan - where he won the world titles in Sprint, Middle Distance and Long Distance - the Swedish Peter Arnesson would finish fourth, ex-aequo with the Russian Eduard Khrennikov.

Leader of the IOF's World Ranking, the Swedish Tove Alexandersson was absolutely devastating, snatching the third world title of Sprint in a row and doing it with the biggest advantage ever in the history of the Championships in this distance, since it was introduced in 2002 (Borovetz, Bulgaria). Alexandersson fulfilled her course in 13:51, defeating the Norwegian Audhild Bakken Rognstad, by the significant margin of 48 seconds. The Swedish Josefine Engstrom finished in the third position, with more 53 seconds than Alexandersson. European Champion of Sprint currently, the Russian Iuliia Tarasenko was “out” of this final, finishing in the 19th place (!) at 4:57 of the winner.

In the World Junior Championships, held in parallel with the WSOC 2015, victories for the Russian Vladislav Kiselev and the Norwegian Anine Ahlsand (Norway). Moreover, the Norwegian junior girls played a very high trump card in the first day of the JWSOC 2015 by completing the podium altogether. The same happened with the Russian female team in the European Youth Championships, that engross the three places of the podium, with Anna Petrova to get the highest step. In the M17 class, the victory went to the Swedish Henning Sjökvist.

Results

Men Elite class

1. Andrey Lamov (Russia) 16:04

2. Stanimir Belomazhev (Bulgaria) 16:08 (+ 00:04)

3. Erik Rost (Sweden) 16:19 (+ 00:15)

4. Peter Arnesson (Sweden) 16:31 (+ 00:27)

4. Eduard Khrennikov (Russia) 16:31 (+ 00:27)

6. Andreas Holmberg (Sweden) 16:44 (+ 00:40)

Women Elite class

1. Tove Alexandersson (Sweden) 13:51

2. Audhild Bakken Rognstad (Norway) 14:39 (+ 00:48)

3. Josefine Engstrom (Sweden) 14:44 (+ 00:53)

4. Tatyana Oborina (Russia) 14:51 (+ 01:00)

5. Mariya Kechkina (Russia) 15:01 (+ 01:10)

6. Milka Reponen (Finland) 15:16 (+ 01:25)

Complete results and further information at http://www.orientering.no/ski-o-vm2015/.

[Photo: Nordenmark Adventure / facebook.com/NordenmarkAdventure]

Joaquim Margarido