The Swiss men and Swedish women showed supreme strength on the last day of the World Orienteering Championships in Switzerland by winning the relays by a large margin.
It was another day with sun and high temperatures at the Prau la Selva sportscentre, which has served as the WOC-arena since Thursday.
And the relay terrain made great demands on the athletes’ physical fitness through the 4,4 / 5,5 kilometers (women/men) with 280 and 340 meters of climb respectively.
Tight first leg
The men were first to start and fought a tight battle on the first leg, where Latvia’s Rudolf Zernis went first into the exchange with Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and Finland on his heels.
On the second leg Joey Hadorn (SUI) took over the lead and created a gap of nearly two minutes on the last half of the course.
Behind him, Olli Ojanaho (FIN) executed a fast route choice on the last long leg and took second position ahead of Sweden and Norway.
Yesterday’s Middle distance world champion Matthias Kyburz held on to the lead and despite a small time loss on the very short last loop he had plenty of time to celebrate the golds medal with teammates Daniel Hubmann and Joey Hadorn on the last meters.
Last time Switzerland won the men’s relay was in 2015, where Hubmann and Kyburz was on the team as well.
Behind Kyburz, Miika Kirmula (FIN) kept Sweden’s Emil Svensk behind him, so Finland took silver 16 seconds faster than the Swedish bronze team.
Norway lost time on the last leg but held onto the fourth place ahead of France and Czechia.
Great Swedish start
The women’s relay turned out to be a Swedish show, as Hanna Lundberg created a decisive gap of nearly 90 seconds on the last half of the first leg.
Behind her, Elena Roos kept Switzerland in second place with Finland, Netherlands, Estonia and Austria on the subsequent positions.
Sara Hagström expanded the Swedish lead to more than 2.30 minutes on the second leg and Natalia Gemperle (SUI) held on to second.
Behind them Norway’s Marie Olaussen climbed from seventh to third spot ahead of Estonia and Finland – all of them more than six minutes behind Sweden.
Tove Alexandersson (SWE) made no mistakes on the last leg and took an impressive victory by more than four minutes together with Lundberg and Hagström.
The Swiss silver medals were never in danger as Simona Aebersold avoided notable mistakes on the last leg.
And Andrine Benjaminsen secured the bronze for Norway more than two minutes ahead of Finland, with Czechia and Denmark taking the final places in top 6.
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Top 6 results:
Men:
- Switzerland (D. Hubmann, Hadorn, M. Kyburz) 1:57:16 minutes
- Finland (Syrjalainen, Ojanaho, Kirmula) +0:43
- Sweden (Ridefelt, Bergman, E. Svensk ) +0:57
- Norway (Liland, Fosser, Kinneberg) +4:49
- France (Elias, Perrin, Basset) +6:35
- Czechia (Roudny, Nykodym, Krivda) +8.09
Women:
- Sweden (Lundberg, Hagström, Alexandersson) 1:47:26 minutes
- Switzerland (Roos, Gemperle, Aebersold) +4:28
- Norway (Andersen, Olaussen, Benjaminsen) +9:59
- Finland (Niittynen, Sianoja, Harju) +12:36
- Czechia (Horcickova, Kosova, Janosikova) +15:03
- Denmark (C. Klysner, Cederberg, Thrane Ødum) +15:16
Source : Orienteering
