WOC) Was Held Between 18Th– 26Th August in Kiev, Ukraine
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This years World Orienteering Championships (WOC) was held between 18th– 26th August in Kiev, Ukraine. Ireland was represented by five athletes, four men and one woman. Two members of the team are Cork O members, Shane Lynch who is based in Sheffield and myself, Darren Burke. The World Championships involves four events, both individual and team based. Sprint, Middle and Long are the three individual disciplines and the team based event is the Relay which involves three athletes from each country. Each of the individual disciplines involves a final of 45 athletes and to get into this 45 you must come in the top 15 in your qualification heat. Sprint Qualification The Sprint Qualification was the first race to be held on a hot Friday afternoon in a forested park near the centre of Kiev. Due to transport issues, Shane only arrived at the start 20 minutes before his start time. The area used was a mixture of open forest on the side of a hill with a good path network. There were also some gullies in one area of the map. Of the Irish Maeve had the best run finishing 19th in her heat. Sprint Qualification – Golosiivsky Park, 1:5000, 2.5m Mens Heat A 1. Peter Öberg, Sweden, 12.53 35. Shane Lynch, Ireland, 16.32 Mens Heat B 1. Yurii Omeltchenko, Ukraine, 13.02 33. Darren Burke, Ireland, 16.26 Mens Heat C 1. Thierry Gueorgiou, France, 12.15 34. Neil Dobbs, Ireland, 16.35 Womens Heat C 1. Simone Niggli, Switzerland, 11.34 19. Maeve O’Grady, Ireland, 14.57 Long Qualification The next morning the Long Qualification race was held to the south of Kiev in an area called Pidgirtsy. Temperatures were much cooler than the previous afternoon and it was also overcast. I had the privilege of being first starter! After two mistakes on the first two controls I ran a steady race until the last control where climbing out of a ravine up a steep bank I found myself on the other side of a deep gully with the control on the far side, which meant a lengthy detour around the top of the gully. The area used was a mixture of mainly runnable forest with some patches of green and open areas which was dissected by some deep ravines and gullies. Long Qualification – Pidgirtsy, 1:15000, 5m Mens Heat A 1. Marc Lauenstein, Switzerland, 57.40 33. Shane Lynch, Ireland, 94.04 Mens Heat B 1. Matthias Merz, Switzerland, 54.36 33. Darren Burke, Ireland, 89.01 Mens Heat C 1. Philippe Adamski, France, 57.28 32. Andrew Quin, Ireland, 78.31 Womens Heat C 1. Anne Margrethe Hausken, Norway, 47.52 26. Maeve O’Grady, Ireland, dsq Middle Qualification On the Sunday morning the last qualification race was held which was the Middle distance. Again the terrain used was totally different to the Sprint and Long Qualification areas. This was an aim of the organisers to test competitors on the different terrains that Ukraine had to offer. As this was my third race in 3 days, the efforts of the two previous days was obvious in my performance. Mistakes in the first half of the course combined with exhaustion in the second part meant a poor run, one which I was disappointed to end my first WOC with. The terrain used was easily the most difficult of the qualification areas. It was characterised by flat terrain with some intricate contour detail in places. It was also difficult to see this contour detail as the vegetation was think which lowered visibility. The difficult terrain meant many mistakes, even by the top runners, with some big names struggling or failing to qualify for the finals. Middle Qualification – Bortnychi North, 1:10000, 2.5m Mens Heat A 1. Valentin Novikov, Russia, 28.54 28. Neil Dobbs, Ireland, 40.01 Mens Heat B 1. Thierry Gueorgiou, France, 26.02 36. Darren Burke, Ireland, 50.08 Mens Heat C 1. Daniel Hubmann, Switzerland, 26.44 21. Andrew Quin, Ireland, 32.58 Womens Heat C 1. Helena Jansson, Sweden, 26.28 23. Maeve O’Grady, Ireland, 45.15 Middle Final As no Irish qualified this year for any of the finals it gave us an opportunity to be spectators at these races. The first final to be held was for the Middle event after a rest day. Temperatures had risen into the 30’s for the finals with shade for spectators at a premium in the finish area, which also had a spectator control. The womens final was held first and the early pace was set by Minna Kauppi who had an early start after a poor qualification race. Her time was later beaten by Marianne Andersen, Heli Jukkola and finally by the eventual winner, Simone Niggli, who added another gold to her growing collection, this being the Swiss athletes 14th WOC Gold. The mens race began after the womens race had finished with the pre-race favourite, three time winner of this distance, Thierry Giorgiou, adding a fourth WOC middle distance gold to his collection. He was followed home by Tero Fohr from Finland with Valentin Novikov from Russia in third. Middle Final – Bortnichi South, 1:10000, 2.5m Men 1. Thierry Gueorgiou, France, 32.21 2. Tero Fohr, Finland, 34.22 3. Valentin Novikov, Russia, 34.30 4. Anders Nordberg, Norway, 34.43 5. David Andersson, Sweden, 34.50 6. John Are Myhren, Netherlands, 35.09 Women 1. Simone Niggli, Switzerland, 32.13 2. Heli Jukkola, Finland, 33.18 3. Marianne Andersen, Norway, 34.14 4. Minna Kauppi, Finland, 34.17 5. Helena Jansson, Sweden, 35.01 6. Tatyana Riabkina, Russia, 35.28 Long Final The next day the Long Final was held in Golosiivo, with the finish in a Ukrainian Folk Park, the spectator control was on the corner of a windmill. This race took place in the hottest temperatures of the week in the region of 38° centigrade. The high temperatures took their toll on competitors with over ten of the 45 men who started not finishing. The area used was mainly open forest with deep ravines and gullies. Over the 18km mens course Swiss athlete Matthias Merz dominated the results winning by just under four minutes from Andrey Khramov and Anders Nordberg. Last years winner Janni Lakinen did not start due to injury and the Swiss could have had another medal based on his 1st place in the qualification race, if Marc Lauenstein had not been ill. In the womens race there was a dead heat for first between two Finnish girls, Minna Kauppi and Heli Jukkola. In third place was Simone Niggli. Long Final – Golosiivo, 1:15000, 5m Men 1. Matthias Merz, Switzerland, 1.44.28 2. Andrey Khramov, Russia, 1.48.06 3. Anders Nordberg, Norway, 1.48.36 4. Mats Haldin, Finland, 1.48.52 5. Vyacheslav Mukhidinov, Ukraine, 1.49.45 6. Roman Efimov, Russia, 1.49.50 Women 1. Minna Kauppi, Finland, 1.20.17 1. Heli Jukkola, 1.20.17 3. Simone Niggli, Switzerland, 1.21.48 4. Ann Margrethe Hausken, Norway, 1.23.47 5. Marianne Andersen, Norway, 1.23.47 6. Hanny Allston, Australia, 1.24.17 Relay After two days of finals there was a rest day before the relay on the Saturday. The Irish mens team consisted of Andrew Quinn on 1st leg, Neil Dobbs running 2nd and out on the third leg was Shane Lynch. The Womens Relay started first but Ireland did not field a womens team this year. The consistent results of the Finnish women was reflected in the results with a first place finish, with Sweden second and Norway third. The mens race began after the end of the womens race and it was won again this year by the same team as last year, the Russian team of Khramov, Effimov and Novikov. In second was Sweden, and third was Finland. The Irish team had a poor start but gained back a number of positions on the second and third legs before Shane lost one of these positions to the oldest competitor in the field from Kazakhstan on the final loop after the spectator control. The Irish team finished 31st out of 39 teams, the biggest field in WOC history. The area used was the same as used for the Long Final, with the same spectator control and last control, which gave a distinct advantage to competitors who had taken part in the long finals. Relay – Pirogovo, 1:10000, 5m Mens Relay 1. Russia (Roman Efimov, Andrey Khramov, Valentin Novikov), 02.10.26 2. Sweden (Peter Oberg, David Andersson, Emil Wingstedt), 2.11.08 3. Finland (Mats Haldin, Pasi Ikonen, Tero Fohr), 02.11.35 31. Ireland (Andrew Quin, Neil Dobbs, Shane Lynch), 03.06.53 Womens Relay 1. Finland (Paula Haapakoski, Heli Jukkola, Minna Kauppi), 1.46.35 2. Sweden (Annika Billstam, Emma Engstrand, Helena Jansson), 1.47.41 3. Norway (Ingunn Hultgreen Weltzien, Marianne Andersen, Anna Margrethe Hausken), 1.47.50 Sprint Final The final event of this years WOC was held in Kievs’ Botantical Gardens in the centre of the city. Ladies first was again the order of the day with Simone Niggli dominating the field to win by 20 seconds from Minna Kauppi, and in third was Lena Eliasson. The mens race was much closer with Thierry Giorgiou winning by 0.9 seconds from Matthias Merz. In third was Swedish runner Martin Johansson. Sprint Final – Botanical Garden, 1:5000, 2.5m Men 1. Thierry Gueorgiou, France, 14.44.0 2. Matthias Merz, Switzerland, 14.44.9 3.