Sweden gold, Hungary silver in both JWOC relays

There were identical outcomes for gold and silver medals in both women’s and men’s relays in wet conditions today, with the winning margins 2.19 and 1.37 respectively. Bronze medals go to the Czech women and Swiss men.

Sweden’s win in the women’s class owes a lot to a very strong final leg run from Middle distance champion Hanna Lundberg, who came up from fourth place, 1.46 down on the lead at that point held by Hungary, quickly up to second and then in front after half-way.

The Hungarian team has had a good JWOC. Here, the Hungarian men’s relay team celebrate winning the silver medals                                   Photos: JWOC

Denmark led at the end of the first leg, Hedvig Valbjørn Gydesen coming in with a 16-second lead. Tilda Ostberg finished ninth on the first leg for Sweden, 2.28 down, and Petrina Costermans improved that to fourth. France was second to Hungary at the end of leg 2 thanks to a fine performance by Cecile Calandry who came up from fourteenth place at the first-leg changeover. A similarly fine run on the last leg was put in by Ida Haapala, Finland who brought her team up from tenth to fourth.

Hungary’s runners were in medal positions at each change-over and finished a good second, whilst the Czech team came up in position steadily as the race progressed.

Race start in wet conditions

In the men’s race, Noel Braun for Sweden was only 56 seconds down on the lead at the first changeover, and Viktor Svensk converted that to a 1.20 lead at the end of leg 2. Axel Elmblad, gold medalist at Middle distance, was able to hold off the challenge from Ferenc Jonas of Hungary to take a comfortable win.

The Czech and Finnish teams had started best, with Norway fourth behind Sweden. The Swiss team came from ninth to second on the second leg thanks to a fine run from Pascal Schaerer. Hungary also had a good second leg courtesy of Zoltan Bujdoso, who came up from nineteenth to third. Spain was in a surprise fourth place at the end of leg 2 but finished tenth.

Cover picture: Sweden’s women celebrate victory

Podium places, Relay

Women

  1. Sweden – Tilda Ostberg (9), Petrina Costermans (4), Hanna Lundberg 1:36:57
  2. Hungary – Boglarka Czako (3), Viktoria Mag (1), Csilla Gardonyi 1:39:16
  3. Czech Republic – Michaela Dittrichova (11=), Lucie Semikova (5), Marketa Mulickova 1:40:49
  4. Finland 1:42:01, 5. Switzerland 1:42:19, 6. France  1:42:31

Men

  1. Sweden – Noel Braun (3), Viktor Svensk (1), Axel Elmblad 1:44:14
  2. Hungary – Peter Nagy (19), Zoltan Bujdoso (3), Ferenc Jonas 1:45:51
  3. Switzerland – Pascal Schmid (9), Pascal Schaerer (2), Florian Freuler 1:47:06
  4. Norway 1:48:10, 5. Russia 1:48:11, 6. Denmark  1:49:52