Tove Alexandersson, Sweden and Miika Kirmula, Finland were the stars of the Long Distance race today, held at the same venue as next year’s World Orienteering Championships – Kuopio, Finland.
The women’s race winner provided yet another master-class, with a lead at the finish 4.05 over current World Cup leader Simona Aebersold SUI. Hanna Lundberg SWE took third place, a further 2.05 down. Alexandersson excelled not only in fitness and agility, but also in route choice on the long legs and general navigational accuracy. “I had a good race with stable orienteering, only small mistakes, and I am very satisfied,” she said, adding: “I still had energy left at the end.” After concentrating on Sprints for WOC, she said she had found it easy to adjust to being back in the forest.
After 3.3 km of the 11.7 km course, Norwegian Andrine Benjaminsen was second, but later dropped to fifth/sixth and Simona Aebersold took over being second-fastest. Lundberg was fourth-fastest until just 1.1 km to go, then ran strongly to finish third. Marie Olaussen NOR was ninth, 2.18 down on the lead, after 3.3 km, then pulled up well to be third 6 km further on the course. She finished 12 seconds down on Lundberg’s time.
Simona Aebersold – yet another good result in a great World Cup season Photos: Hannu Keränen
None of the first three in the men’s results had start times in the final block, and Kirmula had a long wait whilst none of the ‘big guns’ matched his time. He was very comfortable with the terrain, he said: “Whilst I lost a little time here and there, the errors were only small and I had a good race. It’s always special being on home soil, and I had a good feeling the whole time.” He is having a strong end to the season, getting this result after a third-place in Hungary a few weeks ago.
Second-placed Martin Regborn SWE had a slowish start, seventh (1.20 down) after 3.1 km, but later ran consistently to finish 0.44 down, whilst Eetu Savolainen made it two in the top three for Finland, placing between sixth and third throughout and ending 1.45 behind Kirmula. World Cup leader Kasper Harlem Fosser NOR lost a little time early on but was up to third near the end, then lost 15 seconds in the very last section of the course and finished fourth. Finland showed their strength in depth with four runners in the top ten.
Men’s flower ceremony
In the World Cup overall, strong favourites to win are Simona Aebersold and Kasper Harlem Fosser, but Tove Alexandersson and Martin Regborn still have a chance to edge in front. All will be decided at the Middle Distance race on Saturday! IOF TV covers the race from 12.30 until 16.00 Finnish time (UTC +3).
Results, GPS-tracking and photos in IOF LIVE
Leading results
Women
- Tove Alexandersson SWE 1:13:45
- Simona Aebersold SUI 1:17:50
- Hanna Lundberg SWE 1:19:55
- Marie Olaussen NOR 1:20:07
- Venla Harju FIN 1:20:27
- Andrine Benjaminsen NOR 1:20:43
Men
- Miika Kirmula FIN 1:20:10
- Martin Regborn SWE 1:20:54
- Eetu Savolainen FIN 1:21:55
- Kasper Harlem Fosser NOR 1:21:59
- Fabian Aebersold SUI 1:23:20
- Gustav Bergman SWE 1:23:28
World Cup – current top three
Women
- Simona Aebersold SUI 520 points
- Tove Alexandersson SWE 437
- Natalia Gemperle SUI 405
Men
- Kasper Harlem Fosser NOR 364
- Martin Regborn SWE 317
- Emil Svensk SWE 228