Daniel Hubmann is the new World
Champion of Middle Distance. In the Final held today at Darnaway,
Scotland, the Swiss was the strongest, beating Lucas Basset and Olle
Bostrom by narrow margin. In the women class, few dare predicted the
second world title in a row for Annika Billstam, duly followed by
Merja Rantanen and Emma Johansson.
The Scottish town of Darnaway staged
the third big moment of the World Orienteering Championships WOC
2015. With a set of extraordinary and equilibrate values, the dispute
for Middle Distance titles promised a bitter struggle. In the men
class, the French Thierry Gueorgiou was looking forward to assert his title of
“King of the Middle Distance”, after winning for seven times the
gold medal, between 2003 and 2011. But the concurrence was powerful,
beginning by the Swiss Daniel Hubmann and his legitimate ambition to
achieve the only individual medal that was missing in his curriculum.
But there was also the Swedish Gustav Bergman, the Swiss Fabian
Hertner and Matthias Kyburz, the Ukrainian Oleksandr Kratov and, of
course, the Norwegian Olav Lundanes, here defending the world title
achieved in Italy.
In the Women class, the picture was no
different. Eager to “recover the lost time”, the Finnish Minna
Kauppi and the Swedish Helena Jansson appeared in the frontline for
the gold. The Danish Ida Bobach and the Ukrainian Nadiya Volynska
were also athletes to be taken into account. Then there was the
British Catherine Taylor, playing home and eager to give a cheer to
her supporters. Not to forget, of course, the Swedish Annika
Billstam, current World Champion.
The "bis" of Annika
Billstam
The program opened precisely with the
women's final, which lined a set of 72 athletes. The bills began to
be made with the arrival of the Swedish Emma Johansson, registering
the time of 37:04 to 5.3 km of her course and then taking the lead.
At that time, the Portuguese Mariana Moreira had finished her race,
spending 49:30 and ensuring, right there, the best result ever of a
Portuguese in this distance in a World Championships, translated on
the 49th place in the end. Also it would be possible to realize that
Catherine Taylor, then in the second place, had to go more than half
an hour of waiting time (read “suffering”) to see if she was
able, or not, to guaranty a place in the top six.
However the Finnish Merja Rantanen ends
her course, being the first athlete to break the barrier of 37
minutes. With the 5th place achieved in the 2009 World Championships
(Miskolc, Hungary) as her best result ever in the distance, the
Finnish almost guarantees a medal. But Billstam is absolutely
unstoppable, leading her race to the end and finishing with a time of
35:46, which guarantees her second world title in a row at this
distance (the third of her career, considering the world title in
Sprint achieved in 2011, in France). Rantanen won the silver medal
and Emma Johansson arrived, also surprisingly, to the bronze medal.
The Danish Ida Bobach finished a few seconds after Annika Billstam,
occupying the fourth position. Catherine Taylor and Nadiya Volynska
closed the podium by this order.
Hubmann after Lundanes
As in women, the first big note in the
men's race came close to the end, at a time when already all athletes
had left, and from those, 53 gave for completed their performances.
By then, the Norwegian Magne Daehli had a time of 34:49 (he was the
first athlete below the 35 minutes' barrier), but his lead lasted
just two minutes and a half, since the French Lucas Basset have
beaten this time by a margin of 23 seconds. The intermediate times
recorded, however, allowed to realize that both Daehli as Basset
could aspire to the podium, but the concurrence was coming and gave
bi the names of Fabian Hertner, Daniel Hubmann, Matthias Kyburz, Olav
Lundanes, Thierry Gueorgiou and ... Olle Bostrom! Indeed, the latter
recorded 34:36 and stood in the second place behind Basset, but
Daniel Hubmann is also finishing and his time of 34:23 throws him to
the first place. Thierry Gueorgiou has precisely three minutes from
now to complete his course if he even want to aspire to the gold
medal.
The last controls show Gueorgiou to
lose seconds after seconds, concluding with a time of 35:09, which
was worth to him the 5th position. Kyburz? Kratov? Lundanes? Hertner?
Some of them will be able to beat Daniel Hubmann, stealing the gold
medal? Hertner was in this quartet, the first to arrive; but the
final time of 34:58 only guarantees the 5th position. Kratov did even
worse, with a timr of 35:08, though enough for a place on the podium.
As for Lundanes and Kyburz, they ended up losing a lot of time and
getting off the podium. As for the Portuguese Tiago Romao, his result
has to be considered excellent, registering the time of 42:21 and the
47th place in the end.
Results
Men
1. Daniel Hubmann (Switzerland) 34:23
(+ 0:00)
2. Lucas Basset (France) 34:26 (+ 0:03)
3. Olle Bostrom (Sweden) 34:36 (+
00:13)
4. Magne Daehli (Norway) 34:49 (+
00:26)
5. Fabian Hertner (Switzerland) 34:58
(+ 00:35)
6. Oleksandr Kratov (Ukraine) 35:08 (+
00:45)
7. Thierry Gueorgiou (France) 35:09 (+
00:46)
8. Olav Lundanes (Norway) 35:53 (+
01:30)
9. Jan Sedivy (Czech Republic) 36:01 (+
01:38)
10. Jan Prochazka (Czech Republic)
36:08 (+ 01:45)
10. Haines Hector (Great Britain) 36:08
(+ 01:45)
(...)
47. Tiago Romao (Portugal) 42:21 (+
07:58)
Women
1. Annika Billstam (Sweden) 35:46 (+
00:00)
2. Merja Rantanen (Finland) 36:36 (+
00:50)
3. Emma Johansson (Sweden) 37:04 (+
01:18)
4. Ida Bobach (Denmark) 37:32 (+ 01:46)
5. Catherine Taylor (Great Britain)
37:45 (01:59 +)
6. Nadiya Volynska (Ukraine) 37:54 (+
02:08)
7. Sara Luescher (Switzerland) 38:13 (+
2:27)
8. Helena Jansson (Sweden) 38:25 (+
02:39)
9. Jana Knapova (Czech Republic) 38:45
(+ 02:59)
10. Mari Fasting (Norway) 39:09 (+
03:23)
(...)
49. Mariana Moreira (Portugal) 49:30 (+
13:44)
Complete results and further
information at www.woc2015.org.
[Photo: WorldofO /
facebook.com/WorldofO]
Joaquim Margarido
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