IOF World Rankings leader Nikoline Splittorff, Denmark took her second gold in the Middle Distance race today; it was a home win for Jonas Maišelis in the men’s race. The winning margins were 0.24 and 0.10.
Splittorff has started the new season in scintillating form, but it was only in the later stages of the technically difficult course, with many tricky route alternatives for the second day running, that time-wise she got ahead of the pack. Towards the end her time was strongly challenged by the Finn Saara YliHietanen, world-ranked number 14 before today, but Splittorff got the win at the finish by a comfortable 24 seconds. Bronze medal went to Saara’s compatriot Ruska Saarela, who was 49 seconds slower than Splittorff.
Women’s podium. All photos: Donatas Lazauskas
After getting the bronze medal yesterday, home rider Jonas Maišelis went two places better today, taking the gold by 10 seconds ahead of the current world rankings leader, the Czech Vojtech Ludvik, who for the second day running took the silver medal. Third was the Finnish rider Teemu Kaskonen, only 19 seconds down on the winner. Yesterday’s Mass Start winner Samuel Pokala FIN was seen on GPS tracking to be leading the race for much of the way, but according to the Finnish Orienteering Federation he skipped a control and was therefore registered as mispunched. Also in this race there were many route choices on the in places quite complex path network in undulating terrain – some of the routes proving rather more optimal than others.
Men’s podium.
In the junior events there were gold medals for the second day running in W20 – Jade Boussier, France – and M17 – Joel Holmgård, Sweden. The latter had a very impressive lead of 3.23 at the finish. Brother and sister Augustin and Céleste Leclère won M20 and W17 respectively, giving France 3 of the 4 gold medals in the junior and youth championships today.
Rudolf Zetmanis (LAT) and Jaroslav Honner (CZE) start out in M17 and M20 respectively.
Tomorrow the Sprint races take place, with winning times of 20-25 minutes – some furious racing in prospect here! Tune into IOF TV to watch all the action, starting at 10.00 local time (EEST – UTC + 3).
Junior and Youth gold medallists – Middle Distance
W20 – Jade Boussier FRA by 0.06
M20 – Augustin Leclère FRA by 0.13
W17 – Céleste Leclère FRA by 1.09
M17 – Joel Holmgård SWE by 3.23
EMTBOC Leading results, Middle Distance
Women
- Nikoline Splittorff DEN 49:37
- Saara YliHietanen FIN 50:01
- Ruska Saarela FIN 50:26
- Algirda Mickuviene LTU 50:45
- Martina Tichovska CZE 51:18
- Camille Søgaard DEN 51:24
Men
- Jonas Maišelis LTU 51:15
- Vojtech Ludvik CZE 51:25
- Teemu Kaksonen FIN 51:34
- Noah Rieder SUI 52:26
- Miika Nurmi FIN 52:42
- Adrian Jaeggi SUI 52:48