WTOC 2015: Antti Rusanen is the new World Champion in TempO

Antti Rusanen is the new World Champion in TempO. In a tight competition, he was the fastest and most consistent in the decisive journey of Blato, Zagreb, finally reaching the highest place on the world podium. Luís Gonçalves and Inês Domingues were absolutely brilliant, reaching the 6th and 7th positions respectively.

It was a day of celebration, that lived in the Golf & Country Club Zagreb in Blato, in the southwest of the capital of Croatia. On one hand, Antti Rusanen celebrated his first world title, after silver medals in Kiev, Ukraine (2007) and Savoie, France (2011) and the bronze medal in Vuokatti, Finland (2013), all in PreO. On the other, Portugal placed two athletes in top7 raising on a higher level in this particular discipline of Orienteering.

The grand finale of Blato was preceded of a Qualifying hold out the day before in the city of Karlovac and in which 83 athletes took part. In addition to the disqualification of Czech Libor Forst, Jiří Kalousek and Pavel Kurfürst, for violation of competition rules, this course was marked by the avoidance of one of the eight stations, precisely the latest, corresponding to the point of spectators. This decision - correct! - of the organization did some scramble in the 36 qualified for the final with the Czech Tomáš Leštínský to achieve a score of 188 seconds to be the fastest, ahead of Norwegian Sondre Ruud Bråten and Finnish Antti Rusanen. The Norwegian Martin Jullum, World Champion in title, stayed in the 14th position. Portugal lined up in this competition with four athletes, with Edgar Domingues (8th), Inês Domingues (20th) and Luís Gonçalves (25th) secured smoothly into the final. Better than the Portuguese, only the Norwegian and Finnish, with four athletes each in the decisive course.

The final turned out some surprising results, first with Martin Jullum to stay out of the podium and having to settle for 12th place. Also the Swedish Marit Wiksell, the girl prodigy of the world's Trail Orienteering, wasn't far than the 21st place. Much better were the Norwegian Sondre Ruud Bråten and Lars Jakob Waaler, respectively ranked third and fourth and the Portuguese Luís Gonçalves and Inês Domingues, 6th and 7th classifieds. Between the two “pairs” positioned himself the Finn Lauri Mäkinen, as Sondre Ruud Bråten a very young athlete with an extraordinary future ahead. Another big surprise have been the silver medal achieved by the Slovak Ján Furucz while Antti Rusanen guaranteed the gold for comfortable margin of more than 30 seconds. Of the 35 controls of his course, the Finnish answered wrongly to a single question just presenting an extraordinary execution speed of around 6 seconds per challenge. Reference also to the 32nd place of Edgar Domingues, perhaps accusing the pressure of the extraordinary results achieved in Qualifying, and to the 23rd place of the Spanish Antonio Hernandez, showing that the Iberian Trail Orienteering is really in the good way.

Final results

1. Antti Rusanen (Finland) 242.5 seconds

2. Ján Furucz (Slovakia) 279.5 seconds

3. Sondre Ruud Bråten (Norway) 286 seconds

4. Lars Jakob Waaler (Norway) 303 seconds

5. Lauri Mäkinen (Finland) 325.5 seconds

6. Luís Gonçalves (Portugal) 336 seconds

7. Inês Domingues (Portugal) 339 seconds

8. Alessio Tenani (Italy) 364 seconds

9. Tomáš Leštínský (Czech Republic) 379 seconds

10. Martin Fredholm (Sweden) 380 seconds

Complete results and further information at www.wtoc2015.org.

Joaquim Margarido

WTOC 2015: Moments (TempO Final)

© Joaquim Margarido

JWOC 2015: 37 nations entered in Norway

It starts tomorrow and extends until next July 10th the Junior World Orienteering Championship JWOC 2015. With 293 registered athletes, representing 37 nations, this promises to be a high level event in perfect terrains.

The Orienteering at the highest level will base camps in Rauland, Norway, for the Junior World Orienteering Championships JWOC 2015. Throughout this first week of July will be in dispute the world titles of Sprint, Middle Distance, Long Distance and Relay. There are in the competition almost three hundred athletes from countries as diverse as Brazil or South Africa, North Korea or the United States. In a mountainous area, with altitude ranging from 700 meters to 1100 meters, the athletes can expect a forest filled of marshes of all sizes and where the technical skills to read the contours will certainly be decisive in terms of the final results.

The competitive program starts tomorrow with the Sprint taking place in Åmot. Monday and Tuesday are days dedicated to the Middle Distance, first with the qualification and then the final to be played in Krossen, which will attend the 20 top finishers in each of the previous day's heats. On Wednesday, the Championships will take a break to return the next day, in Skisenteret, with the Long Distance. Friday, the last day of the Championships, return to Skisenteret where the Relay will be ran. The detailed program and other relevant information can be found in the Bulletin 4 published by the organization in the event webpage [HERE http://www.porsgrunnol.no/2015jwoc/files/bulletins/JWOC2015_Bulletin_4.pdf].

Major figure of the previous Junior World Championships (Borovets, Bulgaria), where she reached the world titles in Sprint, Middle Distance and Relay and was silver medalist in the Long Distance, the Swedish Sara Hagstrom is the star of these World Championships, in which she will surely fight for the whole titles, a feat never achieved in the Junior World Championships in the 25 editions played previously. Other big names present in Rauland, all medalists in 2014, are the New Zealander Tim Robertson, currently the Sprint World Champion, the Finnish Emmi Jokela, bronze medal in the Long Distance, the Italian Ricardo Scalet, silver medalist in Middle Distance, the Finn Olli Ojanaho and the Swedish Andrea Svensson, bronze medals in the Middle Distance, the Norwegian Heidi Martensson, silver medalist in the Sprint (and Sprint World Champion in 2013) and the Danish Miri Thrane Ødum, bronze medalist in Sprint. Portugal is one of 37 nations present in Rauland, our country being represented by André Esteves, Carolina Delgado, Daniel Catarino and Joana Fernandes.

To know more about JWOC 2015, please see the event's webpage at http://www.jwoc2015.org/.

Joaquim Margarido

10th Memorial Puma: Moments

© Joaquim Margarido

10th Memorial Puma: Victory of Lennart Wahlgren

The Swedish Lennart Wahlgren was the brilliant winner of the 10th Memorial of 7th Guards Brigade “PUMA”, in Trail Orienteering. The event preceded the World Championships of the discipline and took place in Varaždin, Croatia. Luís Gonçalves, in 19th place, was the best Portuguese ranked.

Prior to the World Trail orienteering Championships WTOC 2015, took place in Varaždin region, in northern Croatia, the 10th Memorial of 7th Guards Brigade “PUMA”. Shared between Foot Orienteering and Trail Orienteering - with a TempO stage and two PreO stages, the latter counting for the Unofficial European Cup in Trail orienteering ECTO 2015 - the event caught the attention of three hundred participants, half of which in the competition of Trail Orienteering. With limited resources, the organization, signed by the OK Medimurje club, struggled with serious difficulties face the abnormally high number of entries, and the long queues for the start on the second day and the recurrent delays in the publication of results, are aspects less positive. Weaknesses that Jasminka Cindric Perkovic and their team mates managed to overcome with stoicism and always, but always, with great availability and friendliness.

By winning the stage that filled the first day of the event, the Swedish Lennart Wahlgren pointed out in the best way his presence in the competition and getting a set of excellent results that eventually worth the victory in the sum of three days of competition. The fourth place achieved in the second stage step in Luzec, and the fifth in Varaždinske Toplice in the last day, eventually settled a triumph more than deserved. With “modest” results in the first two days and a victory on the last day of competition, the Latvian Guntars Mankus, World Champion in PreO in 2014, concluded in the second position overall. The third place went to another World Champion in 2014, but in this case in TempO, Martin Jullum. After the third place in the opening stage and with a victory in the second stage, the Norwegian sank unexpectedly in the decisive day, seeing to fade away between his fingers a triumph that could not seem to escape him. With the same points of Martin Jullum, in the fourth position, ranked the Italian Remo Madella.

As for the Portuguese Luís Gonçalves scored two brilliant results - 8th place in TempO stage and 9th in the second day of the PreO - but the 57th position in Luzec forest, in the intermediate stage, turned out to “remove” him to the 19th place overall. Cláudio Tereso, on the 58th place overall and Edgar Domingues, in the 67th position, completed the Portuguese presence in a list where the names of 113 athletes appear, the same as featured the three days of competition. Ricardo Pinto, Ana Paula Marques, Inês Domingues and Joaquim Margarido also participated in the Memorial Puma, but only in the two stages of PreO.

Final Standings

1. Lennart Wahlgren (Sweden) 10 points

2. Guntars Mankus (Latvia) 33 points

3. Martin Jullum (Norway) 37 points

4. Remo Madella (Italy) 37 points

5. Marit Wiksell (Sweden) 40 points

6. Dušan Furucz (Slovakia) 42 points

7. Libor Forst (Czech Republic) 44 points

8. Krešo Keresteš (Slovenia) 44 points

9. Ivica Bertol (Croatia) 46 points

10. Tomáš Leštínský (Czech Republic) 49 points

Full results and other information at http://croecto2015.blogspot.com/.

Joaquim Margarido