WUOC 2016: Sprint Relay gold for the United Kingdom

The UK team won the world university title in the Sprint Relay. In a beautiful afternoon, Charlotte Ward, Peter Hodkinson, Kris Jones and Megan Carter-Davies reached the gold, leaving the silver and the bronze for the teams of the Czech Republic and Norway, respectively.

The World University Orienteering Championships WUOC 2016 had today one of its highlights, with the Mixed Sprint Relay. Played within the urban perimeter of the city of Miskolc, in its southern part, the race was contested by 24 teams of four elements each, two male and two female.

Quite balanced, the first leg saw the teams of Hungary and Estonia finish in the first position, at a time when the first thirteen teams followed separated by just 50 seconds. With Peter Hodkinson, the British jumped to the lead at the end of the second leg with an advantage of 5 seconds over Switzerland and 36 seconds over Norway, respectively second and third classified. In the third leg, the British launched the World University Champion of Sprint, Kris Jones, extending the lead to 1:09 over the second classified, which was now Norway. Czech Republic, Switzerland, Sweden, Latvia, France, Hungary, Estonia and Russia followed the Norwegian team, all of them less than one minute from the silver medal.

In the last leg, Megan Carter-Davies didn't compromise the British expectations and confirmed the gold medal with a time of 54:57 overall. Crowning a fantastic recovery, the Czech Republic had in Denisa Kosová its representative in the decisive leg, reaching the silver medal with a time of 55:47. Norway finished in the third place, 1:14 after the winners. Sweden and Switzerland changed positions, with Lilian Forsgren to gain 11 seconds in the particular fight with Kerstin Ullmann and giving to Sweden the fourth position. Russia would eventually close the seats of honor, with Tatiana Bevza getting the second best time and winning four positions in this decisive leg. One last word to the Danish Emma Klingenberg, the fastest in the last leg, winning seven positions to finish in the 7th place, just 27 seconds away from the diplomas.

Results

1. United Kingdom (Charlotte Ward, Peter Hodkinson, Kris Jones, Megan Carter-Davies) 54:57 (+ 00:00)

2. Czech Republic (Jana Knapová, Miloš Nykodým, Jan Petržela, Denisa Kosová) 55:47 (+ 00:50)

3. Norway (Sigrid Alexandersen, Emil Ahlbäck, Trond Einar Pedersli, Ingjerd Myhre) 56:11 (+ 01:14)

4. Sweden (Elin Mansson, Jakob Enmark, Oskar Sjöberg, Lilian Forsgren) 56:24 (+ 01:27)

5. Switzerland (Anina Brunner, Christoph Meier, Jonas Egger, Kerstin Ullmann) 56:29 (+ 01:32)

6. Russia (Anna Dvorianskaia, Pavel Zarevenko, Nikita Stepanov, Tatiana Bevza) 56:31 (+ 01:34)

Complete results and further information at http://wuoc2016.hu/.

[Photo: BUCS - British Universities & Colleges Sport / twitter.com/BUCSsport]

Joaquim Margarido