There was total Czech dominance in the women’s class as the Junior World Orienteering Championships field went into the forest today for the long distance, where Switzerland’s Matthieu Bührer took the title for the second consecutive day in the men’s class.
After two days of sprint races, Wednesday offered a completely different challenge for the junior athletes – a tough long distance with lots of climbing in the Czech forest.
9.6/11.5 kilometers with 480/560 meters to climb for women and men respectively.
And it seemed to suit the Czech women very well. Lucie Dittrichova defended her long-distance gold from last year’s JWOC in Romania ahead of compatriots Michaela Novotna, who tied for the gold yesterday, and Viktorie Skachova in third.
Dittrichova led all the way around the course which took her 74:48 minutes and Novotna and Skachova were 2:14 and 5:59 minutes behind respectively.
There was more excitement about the victory in the men’s class, where the home favorites Jan Strycek, who later finished 5th, and Daniel Bolehovsky, who ended up with the bronze, both led along the way.
Matthieu Bührer gained time in several places by taking longer route choices following the paths and only took the lead on the way to control 16 after more than an hour of racing.
He finished in 75:06 minutes – that was 54 seconds ahead of New Zealand’s Zefa Faavae and 1:01 ahead of Bolehovsky.
See results and GPS tracking in IOF LIVE
Thursday is a well-deserved rest day for the JWOC athletes before the middle distance on Friday with the first start at 9:00 CEST (UTC +2) and TV broadcast on IOF TV from 10:45 – 15:45.
Photo: Lucie Dittrichova on her way to the win. By JIŘÍ MRKVIČKA / JWOC 2024