A very exciting day of orienteering ended with Final wins for Tove Alexandersson, Sweden and Matthias Kyburz, Switzerland in the first-ever WOC Knock-Out Sprint. The one winner with supreme strength, speed and concentration, the other a master of tactics as well as speed.
Women’s podium: Carter-Davies, Alexandersson, von Dongen Photos: Will Hollowell / IOF
There were some desperately close finishes in some of the quarter- and semi-finals, held in challengingly detailed terrain around the centre of Fredericia. Then the Finals were very different; the men’s was to a fair extent measured, with in particular Tim Robertson NZL attempting to break away on different route choices to the rest, but it was August Mollen, Sweden who ended closest to Kyburz, who timed his run to the finish perfectly and knew exactly where he was going. Bronze medallist was Jonatan Gustafsson, also Sweden after the all-out sprint for the line.
Matthias Kyburz SUI heads for victory
The women’s race quickly developed into a chase after Tove Alexandersson, who put hardly a foot wrong on the course in the final. Megan Carter Davies GBR was the strongest behind her in both navigation and speed and took silver. Eef van Dongen, The Netherlands was strong and clever too, and took the first-ever medal in orienteering for her country. Afterwards, Alexandersson said in the post-race interview that she had felt fully focused all the time, and her best race was the Final.
Proud and happy Netherlands orienteer: Eef van Dongen
Now another rest day, and the final events of the Championships, the Individual Sprint Qualification and Final, are on Thursday.
Knock-Out Sprint Final results
Women
- Tove Alexandersson SWE 8:09
- Megan Carter Davies GBR 8:24
- Eef van Dongen NED 8:25
- Sara Hagstrom SWE 8:29
- Simona Aebersold SUI 8:30
- Lina Strand SWE 8:44
Men
- Matthias Kyburz SUI 7:19
- August Mollen SWE 7:20
- Jonatan Gustafsson SWE 7:24
- Tim Robertson NZL 7:28
- Loic Capbern FRA 7:30
- Kris Jones GBR 7:31