Luke Fisher in the Qualification Race, World Cup Round 1 2025. photo: Erling Thisted / IOF

Wednesday 18th's "shortened long" qualification race to qualify 60 men and 60 women for the A-finals proved as difficult as expected for the GB team, with three of 14 athletes progressing: Luke Fisher, Jo Shepherd and Grace Molloy.

In Thursday's long race A-finals, the start order was determined by reverse World Ranking Order so Luke was almost first off in the (16.2 km + 620m climb) Men's A-final. He caught his 6-minute man, was quite fast much of the time but also slipped some time at a few controls, and finished ahead of several higher-ranked runners in 46th.

He gained World Cup points and a highest World rankings points score - the same as he got in a Swedish League Race earlier this year!

In the Women's A-final (13.4 km + 555m climb) Jo Shepherd ran an excellent race to finish 22nd, and Grace Molloy was a few minutes slower finishing 29th. For both control 8, downhill to a small feature was the biggest time loss. It cost Jo over two minutes and Grace 10 minutes more.

Results

Results at IOF Eventor

Head of the Courses

In the Men's A-final, Kasper Fosser won, catching three minutes on eventual second-placed Matthias Kyburz and eventually pulling away. His winning margin was over four minutes. The next five places were taken by Swedes. The only runner in the top-20 from outside the big-four (SWE, SUI, NOR, FIN) was Quentin Moulet of France, who was 10th.

In the Women's A-final, the last starter Tove Alexandersson caught the runners starting three, six, and nine minutes in front of her. Simona Aebersold and Andrine Benjaminsen were second and third. There were two runners from outside the big-four in the top-20, Denisa Kralova of Czechia was 14th and Cecile Calandry of France was 16th.

Other GB Results

In the B-finals:

• Chloe Potter was 12th

• Alison Smithard was 15th

• Rachel Brown was 21st

• Niamh Hunter was 33rd

• Joshua Dudley was 17th

• Jonathan Crickmore was 26th

• Charlie Rennie was 29th

• Alasdair Pedley was 30th

• Peter Molloy was 31st

• Euan Tryner was 46th

• Alastair Thomas did not start