Norway defended their Relay World
Champion title, and Sweden pulled off an impressive performance. Both
races were dramatic, with mistakes throughout, however both Norway
and Sweden were always in control, retaining the lead throughout the
race.
Sweden’s team of Emma Johansson,
Helena Jansson and Tove Alexandersson enjoyed a victory by 2.41 over
last year’s champions Russia, holding the lead throughout.
There were no dramatic early mistakes
by runners from the best teams, as happened in the men’s race, but
few athletes completed the course without some distinct time loss at
some point on their course. Finland (Venla Harju) kept in touch with
Sweden on the first leg and were 45 seconds down at the changeover,
but Jansson stretched the lead by a minute on the second leg.
However as Alexandersson completed her
leg comfortably but not entirely without error – she missed her way
on the spectator run-through and lost a minute between controls 9 and
13 – the Russian Natalia Gemperle was running well, and took
advantage of a couple of mistakes in the middle of the course by the
Finn Merja Rantanen to pull up into second place, which she held to
the end. Rantanen was not pressed in bringing Finland into bronze
medal position.
There was a sprint finish for fourth
place between Latvia and Switzerland, just won by Sabine Hauswirth
for Switzerland. The Latvian team was fourth after leg 1 (Inge Dambe)
and was never below fifth – a very good team performance. Norway
took the final podium place.
The Norwegian team of Eskil Kinnerberg,
Olav Lundanes and Magne Dæhli ran an impressively controlled race
throughout to take what in the end was a clear victory, with France
getting the silver medals and Sweden the bronze.
There was drama from the start as
Fabian Hertner, Switzerland’s first leg runner, could be seen on
GPS making a huge mistake at control 1, losing more than 4 minutes.
Great Britain, New Zealand and Hungary also faltered badly there.
Sweden and the Czech Republic set the pace, but Frederic Tranchand
for France was going well too. It was he who came to the changeover
first, along with Lithuania and Norway, with Czech Republic and
Denmark not far behind.
The decisive leg was the second one,
where Olav Lundanes for Norway had a brilliant race to come back with
a lead of 1.21 over France and Lithuania, with Sweden and Ukraine a
little over 2 minutes down. This lead was too much for Thierry
Gueorgiou to make up on last leg as Magne Dæhli continued Norway’s
near-faultless progress; Gueorgiou cut the gap to 45 seconds at one
point, but he was never close enough to see the leading Norwegian.
“I was really
nervous,” said Dæhli, “I knew Thierry is in really good shape.
Yesterday I struggled at the beginning, and today I was very focused
on the way to the first control. It felt really good except for the
first control after the arena passage, where I made a small mistake.”
“I was just
focusing on my orienteering,” said Gueorgiou, “and I didn’t see
Magne on the course. The second place feels like a gold for us. We
are really satisfied.”
Estonia ran a good race throughout to
finish fourth, to the great pleasure of the home crowd, and the
podium places were completed by Switzerland, picking up well after
Hertner’s early mistake, and Russia. The Lithuanian team dropped
back on the final leg after being surprisingly close to the lead up
to the second changeover.
For the full
official results, go the WOC webpage: www.woc2017.ee.
[Press Release from
the International Orientering Federation 2017-07-07; photo: Matias
Salonen, IOF Digital Team]
