ISF WSC Orienteering 2017: The party is over!

After achieving the gold in the Long Distance race, Guilhem Elias and Laurence Defraigne returned to be the fastest in the Middle Distance that closed the ISF World Schools Orienteering Championships 2017. Portugal was represented on the Championships' podium by Vasco Mendes, following an excellent performance which earned him a bronze medal.

The ISF World Schools Orienteering Championships 2017 came to an end in Palermo, Italy. The Middle Distance race that ended the competition was attended by 650 competitors from 27 countries, distributed by four School classes and four Selected classes. In the School classes, the highlight is, of course, the French Guilhem Elias (Lycée Honoré d'Urfe), who achieved his second gold medal at the M1 class after beating the Swedish Emil Aselius (Eksjo Gymnasium) by more than 1:30. The Austrian Peter Brabek (BG / BRG Fürstenfeld), the Swedish Isa Envall (Eksjo Gymnasium) and the English Merryn Stangroom (Ulverston Victoria High School) were the winners in the M2, W1 and W2 classes, respectively. The last two athletes also repeated their presence on the podium, after Envall's third place and Stangroom's second place in the Long Distance race, three days ago. Still in the W2 class, a word for the Estonian Johanna Laanoja, second placed today, after being the Long Distance's winner.

As for the Selected classes, the Belgian Laurence Defraigne did the same as Guilhem Elias and won her second gold medal in these Championships, after beating the Austrian Jana Hnilica for an advantage over than one minute, in the W2 class. In the M1 class, the Slovakians Jakub Chupek and Jakub Dekret and the Austrian Jannis Bonek returned to the podium, albeit in a different order, being the gold for Chupek, this time. Spain also repeated its presence on the top of the podium, with Florencio Garcia, second-placed in the Long Distance winning the M2 class. The Swedish Elia Olsson, achieved the silver medal in the W1 class, after getting the bronze in the previous race. In this class, the victory went to the Austrian Ilvy Kastner. One last word for the young Vasco Mendes, third placed in the Selected M2 class, introducing the name of Portugal to the 12-country batch with honours to climb to the Championships' podium.

Results

School M1

1. Guilhem Elias (Lycée Honoré d'Urfe, FRA) 29:30 (+ 00:00)

2. Emil Aselius (Eksjo Gymnasium, SWE) 31:07 (+ 01:37)

3. Matias Salonen (Mäkelänrinteen Lukio, FIN) 32:57 (+ 03:27)

School M2

1. Peter Brabek (BG/BRG Fürstenfeld, AUT) 32:11 (+ 00:00)

2. Felix Lunn (Kenilworth School & Sixth Form, ENG) 32:37 (+ 00:26)

3. Grant Mcmurtrie (Aboyerne Academy, SCO) 34:03 (+ 01:52)

School W1

1. Isa Envall (Eksjo Gymnasium, SWE) 31:04 (+ 00:00)

2. Tuuli Heikkilä (Mäkelänrinteen Lukio, FIN) 33:52 (+ 02:51)

3. Jasmiina Rantala (Mäkelänrinteen Lukio, FIN) 35:02 (+ 03:58)

School W2

1. Merryn Stangroom (Ulverston Victoria High School, ENG) 26:06 (+ 00:00)

2. Johanna Laanoja (Pölva, EST) 26:40 (+ 00:34)

3. Tereza Chrastova (Zakladni a Materska skola Studenec, CZE) 27:23 (+ 01:17)

Selected M1

1. Jakub Chupek (Slovakia) 33:29 (+ 00:00)

2. Jannis Bonek (Austria) 35:10 (+ 01:41)

3. Jakub Dekret (Slovakia) 36:36 (+ 03:07)

Selected M2

1. Florencio Garcia (Spain) 32:20 (+ 00:00)

2. Edmund Grierson (England) 33:56 (+ 01:36)

3. Vasco Mendes (Portugal) 36:37 (+ 04:17)

Selected W1

1. Ylvi Kastner (Austria) 40:31 (+ 00:00)

2. Elia Olsson (Sweden) 41:04 (+ 00:33)

3. Frida Vikström (Sweden) 43:16 (+ 02:45)

Selected W2

1. Laurence Defraigne (Belgium FR) 22:15 (+ 00:00)

2. Jana Hnilica (Austria) 23:26 (+ 01:11)

3. Luboslava Weissova (Slovakia) 24:06 (+ 01:51)

Results and further information at http://www.isfsports.org/wsc-orienteering.

[Photo: ISF WSC Orienteering 2017 / facebook.com/ISFWSCorienteering]

Joaquim Margarido

Portuguese Orienteering Championships 2017: Mariana Moreira was the brightest star

Confirming her predominance in the Portuguese orienteering panorama in recent years, Mariana Moreira achieved the Middle Distance title for the fourth year in a row, in the Women Elite class. In the Relay, COC – Clube de Orientação do Centro recovered the Portuguese title in the Men Senior class, while CPOC – Clube Português de Orientação e Corrida, got the title for the second year in a row in the Women Senior class.

The 23rd edition of the Portuguese Orienteering Championships of Middle Distance and Relay took place last weekend in the city of Vendas Novas. Organized by the ADFA – Associação dos Deficientes das Forças Armadas and the Portuguese Orienteering Federation, the event was attended by 436 athletes, representing 40 clubs. This event was sadly marked by the fact that the Men Elite class didn't find results, following a protest concerning a technical error and the consequent avoidance of the course.

On a fantastic weekend for orienteering's practise, Mariana Moreira (CPOC) performed at the highest level, achieving her fourth Middle Distance title so far. The athlete won with a time of 31:07 and a 1:32 advantage over Raquel Costa (GafanhOri), second-placed and almost seven minutes over the third-placed, Rita Rodrigues (CMo Funchal). In the remaining classes, a special word goes to José Fernandes, athlete from the Clube de Orientação do Minho, for is third title in a row in the M55 class, and to Alexandra Coelho (GD4C), Luísa Mateus (COC) and José Grada (Ori-Estarreja), who revalidated their titles in the W45, W55 and M75, respectively. In all of the 26 national titles awarded, the COC was the great “beneficiary” with eight individual titles and eight collective titles.

COC gets eight Relay titles

Mariana Moreira was again in evidence in the Relay race, contributing decisively to the victory of her club in the Women Senior class. The CPOC got an initial advantage of more than two minutes over the GD4C, but a disastrous second leg almost knocked out the aspirations of Oeiras' team. In the decisive leg, however, Mariana Moreira was far above all her opponents, recovering a disadvantage of approximately seven minutes and offering the victory to CPOC with the overall time of 1:57:55. COC and GD4C occupied, by this order, the remaining places on the podium. As for the Men Senior class, the COC dominated from start to finish, getting the overall time of 1:36:37. Despite an impressive last leg, Tiago Romão was unable to recover the ten minutes that separated him from the lead, achieving for the CMo Funchal the second position with the time of 1:41:56. Ori-Estarreja closed the podium, nine minutes after the winners.

Overall, COC was again the great winner, achieving eight national Relay titles. Clube de Orientação do Minho and CPOC, with two titles each, and Pinhal Novo Secondary School, Grupo Desportivo dos Quatro Caminhos, ADM - Ori-Mondego and Clube de Orientação e Aventura do Litoral Alentejano, with one title each, fill the list of National Champions of Relay 2017.

Results

Middle Distance

Women Elite

1. Mariana Moreira (CPOC) 31:07 (+ 00:00)

2. Raquel Costa (GafanhOri) 32:39 (+ 01:32)

3. Rita Rodrigues (CMo Funchal) 37:52 (+ 06:45)

4. Emília Silveira (CN Alvito) 41:07 (+ 10:00)

5. Inês Pinto (GD4C) 41:57 (+ 10:50)

Relay

Men Senior

1. COC (Paulo Franco, Gildo Silva and Celso Moiteiro) 1:36:37 (+ 00:00)

2. CMo Funchal (Rita Rodrigues, Miguel Silva, Tiago Romão) 1:41:56 (+ 05:19)

3. Ori-Estarreja (António Amador, Bruno Nazário, Rafael Miguel) 1:45:59 (+ 09:22)

4. GafanhOri (Manuel Dias, Raquel Costa, Manuel Horta) 1:54:33 (+ 17:56)

5. CN Alvito (Paul Roothans, Sérgio Ferreira, João Mega Figueiredo) 1:56:36 (+ 19:59)

Women Senior

1. CPOC (Betariz Sanguino, Beatriz Moreira, Mariana Moreira) 1:57:55 (+ 00:00)

2. COC (Catarina Castelão, Inês Domingues, Helena Lima) 2:03:53 (+ 05:58)

3. GD4C (Inês Pinto, Liliana Oliveira, Inês Alves) 2:13:57 (+ 16:02)

4. .COM (Zélia Viana, Ana Castanheiro, Paula Serra Campos) 2:29:50 (+ 31:55)

5. Ori-Estarreja (Joana Marques, Cristina Nazário, Inês Aires) 2:33:00 (+ 35:05)

Complete results and further information at http://cnvendasnovas.weebly.com/.

[Photo: Fernando Costa]

Joaquim Margarido

ISF WSC Orienteering 2017: Hand in hand!

The ISF World Schools Orienteering Championships' second day was dedicated to the Friendship Team Event. Purpose: different nationalities, gender, level - team spirit - three common control points and arrival hand in hand!

210 Athlete Teams and 38 Coach Teams participated in the ISF World Schools Orienteering Championships' Friendship Team Event. Fun and co-operation between the young people rather than competition was, as always, the aim of this event that took place today in the old city centre of Palermo.

Even not being the most important, the results shown an Israeli-Polish-Estonian team winning the competition in the Athletes class. In the Coach class, the victory has gone to an Israeli-Slovenian-Scottish team. Congratulations to everybody!

Results

Athletes class

1. POL-ISR-EST (Gracjan Cuprys, Manor Noam, Leana Jete Korb) 27:26 (+ 00:00)

2. POL-LAT-SCO (Krystian Peterburski, Katrina Dzene, Tristian Samulski) 27:46 (+ 00:20)

3. NZL-POR-SCO (Caroline Nel, Ana Raquel Henriques. Louis Macmillan) 28:10 (+ 00:44)

4. LAT-LAT-NZL (Karlis Stradins, Aiga Irbe Bluma, Petra Buyck) 28:22 (+ 00:56)

5. LAT-EST-NZL (Ilgvars Caune, Annita Laanejõe, Olivier Burns) 29:06 (+ 01:40)

6. BEL-EST-POL (Thiels Liam, Sander Pritsik, Aleksandra Polewka) 29:37 (+ 02:11)

Coach class

1. ISR-SLO-SCO (Odet Verbin, Klemen Kenda, Young Lynn) 29:17 (+ 00:00)

2. SVK-POL-SLO (Pavol Polacek, Barbara Nowak, Monika Ravnikar) 30:15 (+ 00:58)

3. CHN-ISR-BEL (Guoxing Zhong, Avihay Beyar, Clara Cox) 31:49 (+ 02:32)

4. NZL-ESP-POR (Kieran Woods, Ana Herreros Valiente, Maria Amador) 31:53 (+ 02:36)

5. ESP-UKR-NZL (Antonio Gil, Olena Rudakova, Karine David) 32:14 (+ 02:57)

6. POL-CHN-NZL (Honorata Paterek, Jieyuan Luo, James Olever) 33:05 (+ 03:48)

Complete results can be found HERE.

[Photo: ISF WSC Orienteering / facebook.com/ISFWSCorienteering]

Joaquim Margarido

ISF WSC Orienteering 2017: Challenging and funny Long Distance opened the Championships

Students from seven countries won gold medals in the Long Distance's eight Finals, which filled the first day of the ISF World Schools Orienteering Championships 2017.

After an one-year break, the ISF World Schools Orienteering Championships are back for their 17th edition. Searching for their path in the wonderful "Bosco della Ficuzza", in Palermo (Italy), 638 competitors from 27 countries showed their value in the first of two big finals, a Long Distance as demanding as fun.

In the School classes, the 12 medals were distributed by representatives of schools from seven countries, with the gold going to France, Scotland, Finland and Estonia. In either case, the winners got comfortable victories over their opponents, highlighting the advantage of Scotsman Matthew Gooch (Aboyerne Academy), of more than two minutes over Vit Stefan and seven minutes (!) over Lukas Link, both from Zakladni a Materska skola Studenec, Czech Republic. Another important note goes to the French Guilhem Elias (Lycée Honoré d'Urfe), the “king” of the European Youth Orienteering Championships EYOC 2016, where he won two gold and one bronze medals, here performing again at the highest level.

In the Selected classes, Austria was in evidence thanks to the triumphs of Jannis Bonek (M1 class) and Elena Zainer (W1 class), with the remaining victories going to the Spanish Gustav Wiren (M2 class) and the Belgian Laurence Defraigne (W2 class). It's fair to remark the excellent presence of Spain, that still achieved two silver medals, and Slovakia, without gold medals, it's true, but with two silver and two bronze medals. The big surprise, however, goes to the Belgium Laurence Defraigne, by winning the W2 class, with a ten-second advantage over the Spanish Laura Fidalgo, second placed. In the eight finals, Gustav Wiren's triumph was the largest, with a 3:24 advantage over the second-placed, his team mate Florencio Garcia, while the narrowest win was registered in Selected W2, where the Austrian Elena Zeiner won the Slovakian Tereza Smelikova for just two seconds.

Results

School M1

1. Guilhem Elias (Lycée Honoré d'Urfe, FRA) 46:42 (+ 00:00)

2. Sabin Coupat (Lycée Honoré d'Urfe, FRA) 48:04 (+ 01:22)

3. Emil Aselius (Eksjo Gymnasium, SWE) 48:23 (+ 01:41)

School M2

1. Matthew Gooch (Aboyerne Academy, SCO) 40:57 (+ 00:00)

2. Vit Stefan (Zakladni a Materska skola Studenec, CZE) 43:07 (+ 02:10)

3. Lukas Link (Zakladni a Materska skola Studenec, CZE) 48:06 (+ 07:09)

School W1

1. Jasmiina Rantala (Mäkelänrinteen Lukio, FIN) 43:59 (+ 00:00)

2. Johanna Källvik Leufven (Eksjo Gymnasium, SWE) 45:22 (+ 01:23)

3. Isa Envall (Eksjo Gymnasium, SWE) 47:52 (+ 03:53)

School W2

1. Johanna Laanoja (Pölva, EST) 36:54 (+ 00:00)

2. Merryn Stangroom (Ulverston Victoria High School, ENG) 39:30 (+ 02:36)

3. Tereza Chrastova (Zakladni a Materska skola Studenec, CZE) 40:29 (+ 03:35)

Selected M1

1. Jannis Bonek (Austria) 49:01 (+ 00:00)

2. Jakub Dekret (Slovakia) 50:31 (+ 01:30)

3. Jakub Chupek (Slovakia) 53:38 (+ 04:37)

Selected M2

1. Gustav Wiren (Spain) 45:28 (+ 00:00)

2. Florencio Garcia (Spain) 48:52 (+ 03:24)

3. Peter Molloy (Scotland) 49:18 (+ 03:50)

Selected W1

1. Elena Zeiner (Austria) 49:26 (+ 00:00)

2. Tereza Smelikova (Slovakia) 49:28 (+ 00:02)

3. Elia Olsson (Sweden) 50:47 (+ 01:21)

Selected W2

1. Laurence Defraigne (Belgium FR) 41:41 (+ 00:00)

2. Laura Fidalgo (Spain) 41:51 (+ 00:10)

3. Dorota Smelikova (Slovakia) 43:40 (+ 01:59)

Results and further information at http://www.isfsports.org/wsc-orienteering.

[Photo: ISF WSC Orienteering 2017 / facebook.com/ISFWSCorienteering]

Joaquim Margarido

WMOC 2017: Australia achieved 12 out of 23 Sprint World titles

With 12 gold, 2 silver and 3 bronze medals, Australia had a blazing presence in the Sprint finals of the World Masters Orienteering Championships 2017, taking place in Auckland, New Zealand. Individually, the highlight goes to Natasha Key, Petteri Muukkonen and Tsvetan Todorov, who defended successfully their world titles achieved in 2016.

The World Masters Orienteering Championships (WMOC), the biggest sport within the 2017 World Masters Games, saw today the first of two finals of its competitive program. One day after the qualifying series, the Sprint final took place at the famous Albert Park, in the heart of Auckland, New Zealand, together with the University City Campus. A total of 1553 competitors took part in the Finals, of which 841 were in the A finals – those giving access to the world titles -, representing 32 countries.

As said before, Australia was the great winner of the day, with its representatives reaching a total of 12 gold medals, six in the men's sector and the same in the women's. Natasha Key and Herrmann Wehner were the stars of the vast array of 114 Aussies in the A Finals, the first one being able to hold the Sprint World Title in the W45 class, reached in August 2016, in Tallin (Estonia), and the second one by achieving the gold in the M90 class. It was still in the W45 class that a podium was completely filled by the colors of Australia, achievement only equated by Sweden in the M80 class.

Australia tops the medal list

Natasha Key was not the only athlete to defend successfully the world title as both Finn Petteri Muukkonen (M40) and Bulgarian Tsvetan Todorov (M50) did so, with the particularity of Todorov's gold being achieved for the third year in a row. Overall, there was 15 countries winning medals in this first Finals, ten of them having achieved gold medals. With 12 gold medals, 2 silver medals and 3 bronze medals, Australia has shown a huge ascendant over the other countries. Following on the top 10 list is Sweden (2 gold medals, 8 silver medals and 3 bronze medals), Norway (2 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze), Finland (1 gold, 1 Silver, and 3 bronze), Bulgaria and Denmark (1 gold and 1 silver each), the United States and Switzerland (1 gold and 2 bronze each), Japan (1 gold and 1 bronze) and the Czech Republic (1 gold medal).

Finally, two or three notes of curiosity. The tightest triumph came at the M35 class, where the Australian Matthew Crane beat the Norwegian Rune Olsen for just 4 seconds. The Czech Jana Hankovska also didn't take it easy in the W75 class, winning over the Russian Liudmila Labutina by the difference of 7 seconds. In the M45 class, the fight for the gold involved three athletes, with the Australian Grant Bluett holding the win with a 10-second lead over the Bulgarian Ivaylo Ivanov and eleven seconds over the Austrian Michael Stockmayer. On the other hand, the widest advantage belonged to the Norwegian Inger Vamnes, in the W80 class, leaving the second-placed New Zealand's Ann Scott at 7:35. The 2:52 advantage of Natasha Key over her compatriot Catherine McComb in the W45 class, or the triumphs of the Australians Sue Haley (W85) and Hermann Wehner (M90), for margins higher than 2 minutes, deserve also a word.

Sprint World Champions

W/M35 – Anna Sheldon (Australia) and Matthew Crane (Australia)

W/M40 – Jo Allison (Australia) and Petteri Muukkonen (Finland)

W/M45 – Natasha Key (Australia) and Grant Bluett (Australia)

W/M50 – Su Yan Tai (Australia) and Tsvetan Todorov (Bulgaria)

W/M55 – Pavlina Brautigan (United States) and Warren Key (Australia)

W/M60 – Jenny Bourne (Australia) and Geoff Lawford (Australia)

W/M65 – Silvia Baumann (Switzerland) and Keld Johnsen (Denmark)

W/M70 – Birgitta Billstam (Sweden) and Greg Chatfield (Australia)

W/M75 – Jana Hankovska (Czech Republic) and Toshio Onoe (Japan)

W/M80 – Inger Vamnes (Norway) and Peo Bengtsson (Sweden)

W/M85 – Sue Healy (Australia) and Paul Forseth (Norway)

M90 – Hermann Wehner (Australia)

Complete results and further information HERE.

[Photo: Malin Fuhr / orienteering.org]

Joaquim Margarido