Estonias Daisy Kudre Schnyder and Stanimir Belomazhev of Bulgaria was crowned world champions after winning today’s middle distance at World Ski Orienteering Championships in Keminmaa, Finland.
The sun was gone, and the fog had settled over Kallin Skicenter, when the athletes at WSOC raced for middle distance medals early Friday afternoon.
As opposed to the sprint and pursuit race, both the women’s and men’s courses started out in more flat terrain before entering the small slopes and the dense network of narrow tracks close to the ski center bringing lots of technical challenges, which also proved to be decisive.
Daisy Kudre Schnyder won the sprint on Tuesday and showed another great performance today without any notable mistakes. She was leading all the way from the start to the finish, securing her fourth World Championship title in total by more than a minute.
The Swede’s Magdalena Olsson and Frida Sandberg looked along the way to have set the course for the silver and bronze medal but made the same mistake on the way to the next to last control and thereby dropping to fourth and fifth place.
Instead, their fellow Swede’s Linda Lindkvist and Evelina Wickbom raced to win the silver and bronze medals respectively.
On the other hand, the men’s race was decided on the very last meters as Bulgarian Stanimir Belomazhev beat Sweden’s Rasmus Wickbom by two seconds after a thrilling close race.
Despite taking different route choices on the last loop, they remained within seconds of each other, until Belomazhev increased the speed into the finish and won his second world championship title in total.
Tuomas Kotro, Finland was 41 seconds behind Belomazhev, but managed to win a bronze medal – his third medal at the WSOC.
Baklid and Kudre Schnyder won World Cup
Jørgen Baklid of Norway led today’s race early on but was three seconds behind Kotro at the finish.
However, he should be able to find comfort in winning the overall IOF Ski Orienteering World Cup 2022, that was settled today. Baklid scored 345 poins and today’s world champion Belomazhev finished second with 295 points. Rasmus Wickbom’s 275 points put him into third position.
Daisy Kudre Schnyder won an even more clear victory in the women’s competition. She scored 340 points and with Sweden’s pursuit world champion Linda Lindkvist as the closest contender with 276 points. Finland’s Salla Koskela was another 11 points behind.
Obviously, the 22 year old Jørgen Baklid won the new U23 World Cup well ahead of fellow Norwegians Henrik Fredriksen Aas and Isak Jonsson.
Lithuania’s Judita Traubaite is the overall U23 World Cup winner in the women’s competition ahead of Sweden’s Elin Schlagerström and Kaisa Klemettinen, Finland.
The SkiO World Cup standings are available here.
Exciting sprint relay to come
The World Ski Orienteering Championships in Finland ends tomorrow with the sprint relay, where the teams consist of one man and one woman sharing the six legs between them.
The HQ web-tv stream with English commentary will begin at 9.50 EET (UTC+2) – Get your ticket here: https://orienteering.sport/event/world-ski-orienteering-championship/sprint-relay/
The JWSOC and EYSOC athlete raced the mass start today– find the results here.
Leading results, WSOC Middle distance
Women
- Daisy Kudre Schnyder, EST 36:43
- Linda Lindkvist, SWE 37:54
- Evelina Wickbom, SWE 38:11
- Anna Magdalena Olsson, SWE 38:26
- Frida Sandberg, SWE 38:32
- Salla Koskela, FIN 38:39
Men
- Stanimir Belomazhev, BUL 40:45
- Rasmus Wickbom, SWE 40:47
- Tuomas Kotro, FIN 41:26
- Jørgen Baklid NOR 41:29
- Linus Rapp, SWE 41:44
- Eevert Toivoinen, FIN 41:55
Photo: svenskorientering.se