Switzerland defended its World Games title in the Sprint Relay ahead of Sweden and the Czechia as the athletes in Chengdu, China ran the final orienteering competition on Monday morning.
And the competition, which, like Sunday’s sprint, took place in the Jiangxi River Ecological Greenway Park, was an exciting and ever-changing affair.
Yesterday’s surprise bronze medalist Maria Prieto made a strong start for Spain and passed the arena in front, but before the exchange yesterday’s silver medalist Natalia Gemperle had taken the lead for Switzerland with New Zealand (Laura Robertson) and Hungary (Csilla Gardonyi) on her heels.
On the second leg, the standings were shaken up, as New Zealand with Tim Robertson quickly got to the front and led at the exchange, while Sweden (Jonatan Gustafsson) and Czechia (Jakub Glonek) also passed Switzerland’s Riccardo Rancan.
Strong Swedish leg
Sweden’s August Mollén had a great race on the third leg and took the lead at the eighth control and created a gap of over 20 seconds to Czechia, who now took second place with Tomas Krivda, New Zealand (Joseph Lynch) was in third position, while Switzerland (Tino Polsini) was more than 40 seconds behind before the final leg.
Here, the double gold medalist from the previous days, Switzerland’s Simona Aebersold, showed that she is in top form and already caught up with the other teams before the arena passage.
At the finish she was five seconds ahead of Sweden’s Alva Sonesson and a further ten seconds later Tereza Rauturier of Czechia ran in for bronze.
This is Simona Aebersold’s sixth gold medal in total at the World Games and thus she now has the most World Games gold medals of all orienteers.
Find results, maps, GPS tracking and photos in IOF LIVE.
Top photo: Klement Kelén