2008 WUC Orienteering: Day 2
July 31st, 2008
The second competition day in the XVIth World University Orienteering Championships brought two new Champions - Michal Smola from Czech Republic and Bodil Holmström from Finland. Long Distance for men was 13,22 km with 25 controls, for women 9,01 km and 19 controls. The Men's gold medalist Michal Smola from Czech Republic spent 1 hour 21 minutes and 17 seconds in the terrain and it was almoust 2 minutes better than the silver medal – Fabian Hertner from Switzerland (1:23.16). For bronze medalist – Yury Masnyy from the Russian Federation – it took 1:25.13 to complete the race.
Michal Smola (CZE), Men's Long Distance Gold Medallist
The Men's University World Champion in Long Distance commented his race: “My goal in today's race was to defend the previous two WUOC titles in long distance. I was aware, that this time it would be extremely difficult with respect to the terrain. The green is not my favourite colour.” Michal Smola started before Edgars Bertuks from Latvia (today's 4th position) and he was surprised to be caught by Edgars Bertuks so early. On 2/3 of the course they split and the Latvian orienteerer took the control for 1 minute before today's Champion. “Then I just tried to get back in focus and ran quite a clean run up to the end. My mistakes took about 2 minutes all together and that’s satisfying - the terrain was a challenge,” the Champion commented satisfied.
Bodil Holmström (FIN), Women's Long Distance Gold Medallist
The Champion title in the Women's class was taken by Bodil Holmström from Finland with 1 hour 5 minutes and 37 seconds. It was a clear victory, while the second place, Una Arama from Latvia, was behind 6 minutes and 41 seconds (1:12.18). Heini Wennman from Finland won the third place and her time was 1:12.38. Women's gold medalist Bodil Holmström made few smaller mistakes during the race, but she was able to avoid major mistakes which everybody else seem to have made. “This is clearly the reason for me winning today, because I knew already out on the course that I am not among the five fastest when it comes to running.” She added: “Today’s terrain was green and tough as expected, but the map was good and I felt that it provided me all necessary information about runnability and other important aspects.”
90% of the terrain is forested - mixed forest, clearings of different age, some bushes and undergrowth. Runnability can be varying on clearings and on areas with undergrowth. The course planner Mr Avo Veermäe, who also mapped the terrain, considered the right speed running on a different terrain elements to be the key of the victory. “Terrain is very different, some of the distance can be run on maximum speed – the visibility is good and nothing disturbs running. On the other hand there are areas where one wants to run, but nothing can been seen.” 95 men and 76 women started today, 75 of men and 76 of women completed the race. The weather was warm and sunny. It gave sunny feeling to the whole day despite of green forest and tough kilometres on the terrain. On the http://www.easl.ee/wuoc2008/index.php?sisu=results under the “races” you can look competitors races of each days.
Daily Results
Men's Long Distance
1. Michal Smola (CZE) 81:17 2. Fabian Hertner (SUI) +1:59 3. Yury Masnyy (RUS) +3:56
Podium Men's Long Distance
Women's Long Distance
1. Bodil Holmström (FIN) 65:37 2. Una Arama (LAT) +6:41 3. Heini Wennman (FIN) +7:01
Podium Women's Long Distance
Ranking
Click on the link below to download the complete results of today's race.
Results Long Distance
