Norway won the sprint relay at the World Ski Orienteering Championships in Finland with stable performances by Anna Ulvensøen and Jørgen Baklid, who kept Sweden and Estonia behind in the fight for gold.
The first three competition days of WSOC in Finland has offered some exciting races at Kallin Skicenter and the final event – the sprint relay – was no exception.
Italy’s Stefania Corradini set the pace on the first leg and was fastest to the change-over with five other teams within eight seconds behind her.
During the second leg, Norway’s Jørgen Baklid took the lead and from there on he held the relay in a firm grip together with Anna Ulvensøen.
Nicola Müller showed the Swiss colors on the second leg by being just behind Baklid, but from the third leg and onwards it was all about Norway being chased by the two Swedish teams and Estonia and Finland fighting for the bronze.
On the final leg, Linus Rapp from Sweden 2 was a few seconds ahead of Jørgen Baklid at halfway, but Rapp had the long forking on the final loop and Baklid crossed the finish line with a clear margin of 19 seconds to Rapp.
Finland’s Tuomas Kotro has won three medals this week and kept on pushing to overtake Estonia’s third place, but Mattis Jaama stayed cool and secured the bronze by two seconds.
Leading results – WSOC Sprint Relay
1 Norway (Ulvensøen, Baklid) 39:49
2 Sweden (Olsson, Rapp) 40:08
3 Estonia (Da. Kudre Schnyder, Jaama) 40:36
4 Finland (Koskela, Kotro) 40:38
5 Switzerland (Deininger, Müller) 41:37
6 Bulgaria (Dyaksova, Belomazhev) 43:09
Today’s result means that Norway and Estonia split the top position in the overall medal standings after the WSOC.
Gold Silver Bronze
1 Norway 2 0 1
1 Estonia 2 0 1
3 Finland 1 4 1
4 Sweden 1 3 3
5 Bulgaria 1 0 0
6 Switzerland 0 0 1
The sprint relay was the final international ski orienteering competition of the 2021-2022 season – rediscover results from ESOC and WUSOC at Eventor.
The JWSOC and EYSOC-athletes raced their relays today – find the results here: https://wsoc2022.com/results/