Grace Molloy in the Middle Final, World Cup Round 1 2025. photo: Andrei Pinzaru
On Saturday 20th June the second set of points of the 2025 World Cup were decided in a Middle Distance Race in Idre. Luke Fisher, Jo Shepherd and Grace Molloy were in the A finals, and the rest of the GB runners were in the B finals.
World Cup Middle Race - Results at IOF Eventor.
In the men's A-race Swedes took the first four places with Max Peter Bejmer the winner, and French runners took the next three places! Luke was 45th.
In the women's A-race a French runner did even better: Cecile Calandry took the third podium spot, behind the two superstar women orienteers, winner Tove Alexandersson and second Simona Aebersold. Grace was 35th and Jo 61st.
The commentators said rarely do they see so many mistakes at this level of competition!
Silver Medallist in the 2023 World Champs Middle Distance Joey Hadorn did not have a good run, screenshot from IOF TV
The results threw up several surprises, notably how well the French team did. The Swiss men did not have as good a day as they often do. Their highest placed runners were 18th and 19th, Fabian Aebersold and Daniel Hubmann. That was with all the men selected for the Finnish World Champs team not present. (Ahead of Fabian were 7 Swedes, 3 French, 3 Norwegians, 2 Finns, a Czech and an Estonian.)
It seems the terrain was the reason for this (and the way the planners had used it). A lot of runners described it as rougher than expected, and the TV commentary emphasised that the reduced visibility that was characteristic of some parts of the area made navigation more difficult. Line Cederberg of Denmark, who achieved a best ever World Cup result in the top ten, was the early leader and said she realised she had to really slow down to keep the technical side of her race under control.
In the 100+ runner men's B-final:
- Alastair Thomas was third.
- Euan Tryner was fifth.
- Joshua Dudley was sixth.
- Charlie Rennie was 10th.
- Peter Molloy was 34th.
- Jonathan Crickmore was 47th.
In the 42 runner women's B-final:
- Alison Smithard was sixth.
- Niamh Hunter was eighth.
- Rachel Brown was 12th.
- Chloe Potter was 22nd.
Their top-50 runs in the A-finals earned further World Cup points for Grace and Luke. Jo's strong run in the qualification on Wednesday improved her World Ranking position.
The other four women in the GB team, Alison, Rachel, Niamh and Chloe all counted at least one of their Idre runs into their best five for (forest) World Ranking scores. In fact Alison's best five scores have all come this year.
All three individual races in Idre are among Luke's best five recent international races and he just moves ahead of Alastair Thomas in the (forest) World Rankings.
Other men improving their (forest) World Ranking include Charlie Rennie (all three of his Idre races counting in his best five) and Euan Tryner and Alasdair Pedley (two of their races in Idre counting.)
Rachel Brown, photo: Erling Thisted /IOF
Niamh Hunter, photo: Tero Marjamäki
Luke Fisher, screenshot from IOF TV