Switzerland won an exciting sprint relay at World Orienteering Championships in Edinburgh on Sunday afternoon after a close battle with Sweden, who ended up disqualified.
Instead, it was Finland who got the silver medals with Norway taking the bronze.
Today’s sprint relay was run on the campus of Heriot-Watt University in the western part of the Scottish capital. The arena was spectacularly located inside an indoor football field, which set a great setting for the competition.
34 teams stood ready at the starting line and were sent out into the relatively flat campus area, which offered many route choice challenges and tricky forkings to test the runners.
Towards the end of the course, the athletes passed an outdoor fan zone before finishing with two short legs in an indoor maze before the changeover.
The last intense legs created a great atmosphere from the stands, which could follow the final meters closely.
Close first leg
And they could, among other things, cheer on the home ground favorite Grace Molloy, who ran a strong first leg for Great Britain and entered exchange one second behind the leader Eef van Dongen (NED) and at the same time as Sweden’s Hanna Lundberg. The later world champions from Switzerland were three seconds behind with Natalia Gemperle.
Five teams was within five seconds and a further three teams were less than 20 seconds behind van Dongen.
On the second leg, Emil Svensk (SWE) and Riccardo Rancan (SUI) quickly separated themselves from the pursuers and made a gap of almost 20 seconds to Denmark, Finland and Great Britain in that order.
As Switzerland (Joey Hadorn) and Sweden (Martin Regborn) continued to take turns on the lead on third leg, Finland’s fast running Tuomas Heikkilä was right on their heels and was just three seconds behind at the changeover.
Ralph Street also kept Great Britain in the fight for medals and Kasper Fosser (NOR) picked up three positions and just under 30 seconds on the leaders.
Three teams battling for gold
This set the stage for an exciting battle for the gold between Tove Alexandersson (SWE), Simona Aebersold (SUI) and Venla Harju (FIN).
And the three athletes followed each other on the first half of the course. Later, Harju couldn’t quite keep up and lost time and in front Aebersold made a decisive gap to Alexandersson on the last loop.
It gave the spectators a rush when Aebersold and Alexandersson ran around the labyrinth at the same time, but the Swiss’ lead could not be caught and Aebersold ran to the finish approx. 10 seconds ahead of Alexandersson.
Riccardo Rancan, Natalia Gemperle, Simona Aebersold, Joey Hadorn, Switzerland
It is Switzerland’s first WOC-gold in the sprint relay since 2014 and the first time since 2016 that Sweden has not won.
At the finish, it turned out that Alexandersson had mispunched at control 12 and thus Venla Harju came in for a Finnish silver medal. The first WOC Sprint relay medal ever for the Finns.
Miika Kirmula, Maija Sianoja, Venla Harju and Tuomas Heikkilä, Finland
Behind them, a strong running Andrine Benjaminsen (NOR) had overtaken Megan Carter Davies (GBR), who lost time on the last half of the course.
Victoria Hæstad Bjørnstad, Eirik Langedal Breivik, Kasper Fosser and Andrine Benjaminsen, Norway
Norway thus ended up with the bronze medal, while Czechia won a close sprint for fourth place ahead of France and Hungary.
Find all results, GPS-tracking, photos and maps on IOF LIVE
The World Orienteering Championships continue on Tuesday with the Knock-Out Sprint.
Qualification starts at 09.00 (UTC +1) and the first quarter final begins at 14:25.
All photos: Kristina Lindgren