The more than 300 athletes competing at the European Orienteering Championships got their first real taste of the continental terrain in central Hungary on Friday morning, when the Middle distance qualification took place.
Divided into three heats for each gender, the task was clear: A top 20 position in the massive Hungarian August heat earned them a spot in Saturday’s Middle final.
Today’s qualifying courses were approximately 3.9 kilometers long for the women and 4.5 kilometers for the men and were won in 22-23 minutes of running time. With temperatures around 35 degrees and between 145 – 185 meters to climb, the challenges were evident.
Sweden’s Gustav Bergman was 4th in his heat and made a safe qualification despite losing time in the beginning of the course.
“I immediately missed the first control. Headed out and hit the wrong yellow area and kept on running. Looked up and saw a flag where I didn’t expect it and managed to course correct. I was expecting it to be a bit tougher so will be interesting tomorrow”, he said after the race.
In total, athletes from 19 different nations managed to make it into the top 20 and secure at least one final place for the country.
Sweden and Switzerland shared the heat wins between them. For the women, Tove Alexandersson (SWE), Hanna Lundberg (SWE) and Simona Aebersold (SUI) won their respective heat, while Fabian Aebersold (SUI), Joey Hadorn (SUI) and Emil Svensk (SWE) were fastest in the men’s heats.
Find results and GPS tracking in IOF LIVE
Saturday’s finals begin at 13:30 for women and 15:18 for men – CEST (UTC +2).
IOF TV broadcasts a high-quality TV production from 14.20 – 17.50 with English and German commentary.
Photo: William Hollowell