Organisers in Neuchâtel
The European Champs in the three Sprint formats have begun. Yesterday, May 13th, the Sprint Relay was won by Switzerland, with Sweden second and Norway third.
There was no British entry in yesterday's relay because UK Government rules on international travel meant few GBR athletes can attend the championships. Most European countries have usual size teams but numbers of athletes from further afield are down. There are no runners from Ireland, Australia and Canada, or China (which hosted the previous World Cup round, the Final Round of 2019, with runners from the home team winning two medals.)
Today May 14th is the sprint qualification races from 2pm UK-time. There are 119 men running, including Tam WIlson of Great Britain, and 105 women, including Megan Carter-Davies and Jo Shepherd.
Links
Sprint Qualification Start Times.
On The Red Line congratulates and wishes well to Thomas Wilson making his first senior international appearances. Tam is a Scot, growing up with Clydeside Orienteers and the Edinburgh University setup. With Jo also being Scottish and Megan being Welsh it means there is no English athlete at the championships.
The Championships
Preview of the Championships by World of O.The preview includes sections on who are the favourites and why. (Amongst those not mentioned keep an eye out for Megan of course, and, based on yesterday, Virag Weiler of Hungary and Jakob Edsen of Denmark.)
UPDATE: Post qualification races. Yesterday's relay was no guide with several runners for leading teams yesterday eliminated today (Gustav Bergman, Milos Nykodym, Fredric Tranchand, Michal Olejnik, Tatiana Ryabkina, and Emil Svensk not starting.) The strength in depth of Switzerland and Sweden came through. Switzerland had 17 runners, and the lowest position amongst them was 14th. All nine Swedish women are through, with eight of them in the top six of their heats. Potentially two-thirds of the 18 women's semi-finalists could be from Switzerland or Sweden. On The Red Line hopes Megan is one of the others - she qualified 4th in her heat. Other "others" with a fair shot at the semi's are Andrine Benjaminsen, Victoria Haestad Bjornstad, Tereza Janosikova, Natalia Gemperle, Maija Sianoja and Lotta Karhola. Jo and Tam didn't qualify. Start times in Sunday's individual sprint are based onWorld Ranking Lists at 11th May, with fastest going latest so Tam and Jo will run before Sunday's TV broadcast starts.
Women's Qualification Race Results
Men's Qualification Race Results
Formally it's the EGK European Orienteering Championships, and World Cup 2021 Round 1. The Europeans were last contested three years ago; that was in Ticino the Italian part of Switzerland and the Swiss team won a lot of the medals.
This time the Swiss team, on home soil, looks to again be the strongest, but unfortunately all the local spectator arrangements have been called off. The Sprint Relay had the start, last five controls, finish, and changeover in the splendid football stadium at Maladiere. Per Forsberg's voice rang out of the stadium loudspeakers but there were only the runners, team officials and race officials there to hear. The stands were empty. The TV commentary said they had hoped for 5,000 spectators. Such a pity.
Empty Stands
Sprint Relay Result
There is an excellent report with the results and maps at World of O.
All four runners in the Swiss team, Simona Aebersold, Joey Hadorn, Matthias Kyburz and Elena Roos ran the fastest time on their relay leg. The Swedish leg one Lina Strand finished quite close to Switzerland and ahead of the rest of the field, but second leg Gustav Bergman and third leg Emil Svensk lost time to the Swiss men whilst at the same time consolidating the team's second place. Barring a really big mistake, and at the front of the race there were very few even minor ones, the first two places were decided well before the last leg. Sarah Hagstrom made no mistake for Sweden to take second. It is likely that both Elena Roos and Sarah Hagstrom could have gone faster if they had needed to.
Not unexpectedly the most interesting medal position contest was that for the bronze. Three years ago this was only decided on the last loop of the last leg, and whilst it did again go to the last leg, Andrine Benjaminsen of Norway held the third place given her by Kasper Fosser. She was the last leg for Norway three years ago too, and this time it wasn't decided in front of spectators at the end. So it was the same 1-2-3 as last time.
The Start (all photos courtesy of the Swiss organisers.)
Schedule
May 13th - Sprint Relay
May 14th - Knockout Sprint Qualification
May 15th - Knockout Sprint Quarter-Finals. Semi-Finals and Finals.
May 16th - Individual Sprint
Sprint Qualification - May 14th
Sprint Qualification Start Times.
There are three men's heats and three women's. The first 12 in each qualify for tomorrow's Knockout Sprint rounds. Runners start in order of World Ranking List.
The planners are Fabian Hertner and Andreas Kyburz, both only recently retired from the Swiss Team. Andreas Kyburz (Matthias's elder brother) won the sprint bronze at the World Champs in Latvia in 2018. Fabian Hertner won a bronze medal in the classic in the forest in the same year, ending his international career with 12 World Championship medals, spread across all the disciplines.