Junior World Championships Relays: Double Triumph for Sweden

Sweden won both Relay races today, the women’s by 4:07 and the men’s by 0:56. Finland also won two sets of medals, and Hungary and Norway won one each, on another sunny day in northern Portugal.

A bright sunny morning for the Relays                   Photos: Susana Luzir/JWOC 2022

The lead in the women’s race at the first changeover was held by Jana Pekarova, Czechia, but Hilda Holmqvist Johansson for Sweden 1 was just 6 seconds behind. Elsa Sonesson converted this to first place for Sweden at the end of leg 2, coming in with a 7-second lead, and Hanna Lundberg then sped away from all competition to complete a near-perfect leg and a win by over 4 minutes. Hungary was in the top 5 throughout and Rita Maramarosi ran a good last leg, gaining two places to finish in a comfortable second place. Finland recovered from a slow start to take the bronze medals, Eeva Liina Ojanaho gaining 6 places on last leg.

Peter Molloy, Great Britain was the early leader in the men’s race, handing over with a 6-second lead. The eventual winning Swedish team was 6th at this point. Edvin Nilsson then ran a superb second leg for Sweden, bringing them through to a 1:31 lead at the second changeover. Noel Braun made up for his disappointment yesterday, when he lost his SI card whilst in a potential winning position, to bring Sweden in for their second gold medal haul of the day. Finland started slowly, but good runs by first Akseli Virtanen and then Touko Seppa brought them the silver medals. Norway can thank Martin Vehus Skjerve who gained 4 places, and then Kornelius Kriszat Løvfald for a fine last-leg run, gaining three places to get bronze.

The full TV recording, full results and GPS tracks are on IOF Live.

The final JWOC forest race is tomorrow, the Long Distance, with starts from 9.30 GMT.

Follow the action on IOF Live!

Leading results (omitting nations’ second teams)

Women

  1. Sweden (Hilda Holmqvist Johansson, Elsa Sonesson, Hanna Lundberg) 86:06
  2. Hungary (Boglarka Czako, Viktoria Mag, Rita Maramarosi) 90:13
  3. Finland (Elsa Ankelo, Salla Isoherranen, Eeva Liina Ojanaho) 90:57
  4. Switzerland 93:19, 5. Czechia 96:15, 6. Norway  96:26

Men

  1. Sweden (Jesper Johansson, Edvin Nilsson, Noel Braun) 89:19
  2. Finland (Aaro Ojala, Akseli Virtanen, Touko Seppa) 90:15
  3. Norway (Mikkel Holt, Martin Vehus Skjerve, Kornelius Kriszat Løvfald) 90:46
  4. Switzerland 92:15, 5. Spain 93:17, 6. France  94:42