Have a read of planner Graeme Ackland's account published at World of O - WOC24 Sprint Relay Analysis. "So off on the last leg, the two superstars Tove, Simone, and the merely world class Finn Venla Harju."

The usual World of O graphs and map links are in the summary of the WOC24 Sprint Relay.

The races were broadcast (free of charge) on Eurovision Sport in the UK and several other European countries. 30 minutes highlight reel - WOC24 Sprint Relay.

The starting runners leave the Sports Centre, photo: IOF/Kristina Lindgren

Hanna Lundberg leads through Control 1, photo: Rob Lines

Control 1 was, unusually for a relay, a common control. As the planner writes (see link above) the next leg was a route choice problem that many found hard. And the first question was how to leave the car park? Most took the main exit to the left, and then chose to run a route to the right.

The first runners out of the Car Park on the way to control 2, photo: on the red line

It was slightly quicker to use a gap in the hedge as Hanna Mueller of Germany, Tille De Smul of Belgium and Evely Kaasiku of Estonia showed. Your photographer then swung right to see a peloton led by Hanna Lundberg and Natalia Gemperle approaching.

The peloton comes out of the car park and down the road on the way to control 2, photo: on the red line

A still from the tracking

This still from the tracking indicates the difficulty of using the tracking for fine analysis. It was like this throughout the campus.

Controls 2, 3 and 4 were the first gaffling set (there were two sets for the women). By Control 5 Switzerland, Finland, Norway and Hungary were the leaders. At 6, the first TV split and the start of a long route choice leg, it was a continuous stream of runners, perhaps surprisingly with Ireland and China amongst the top ten and both under 10 seconds off the lead.

Grace Molloy in the lead at Control 14/15, photo: Rob Lines

After a common middle section (but with route choice) and the second forked section, about 12 minutes running had been done and the changeover was near. Grace Molloy had taken the lead to the delight of most of the crowd, with Sweden, Netherlands, Switzerland and Denmark within 10 seconds. Norway and Hungary were 15 seconds back. It was then an arena passage and back into the sports centre, but the planner kept the need for navigation with a control in the car park's hedges and a small maze in the centre itself. When that was done there were five runners in line on the straight 50m to the changeover point, with Eef Van Dogen of Netherlands leading and Grace second. They were followed by Hanna Lundberg of Sweden, Natalia Gemperle of Switzerland and Josefin Lind of Denmark.

The end of Leg 1, screenshot from the IOF TV Broadcast

Freddie Carcas ran leg 2 for GB, photo: Kristina Lindgren / IOF

Freddie Carcas took leg 2 for GB. At control 6, the first TV split on the leg, he was third, 6 seconds down on Riccardo Rancan of Switzerland with Emil Svensk of Sweden in second. Norway, Finland, Denmark and Hungary were five seconds behind.

At control 10 Svensk was leading Rancan, and Freddie was leading Miika Kirmula of Finland 15 seconds down, with Andreas Bock Bjoernsen of Denmark just a few seconds behind them. Norway had lost time.

Emill Svensk leads Riccardo Rancan in the maze, photo: screenshot from the IOF TV broadcast

By the changeover it was Sweden with Switzerland right behind, Denmark at +17 secs, Finland at +20 secs and GB at +22 secs. Hungary overtook Belgium on the run-in to lead home a group of teams in 6th - 15th places, 45 seconds down on Sweden.

Ralph Street, photo: Rob Lines

Ralph Street took leg 3 for GB. At control 6 it was much the same for the top 5, but Loic Capbern of France and Kasper Fosser of Norway had closed to 5 seconds behind Ralph.

At control 10 Martin Regborn of Sweden had 7 seconds on Joey Hadorn of Switzerland and Tumoas Heikkila of Finland was now only 5 seconds behind Hadorn. And at the end of the leg these three teams were spread by only 3 seconds. Ralph was 13 seconds behind them, and Norway a further 7 seconds down.

Now the last leg near the front of a major championship relay is not a place for the faint-hearted, to put it mildly....

Megan Carter-Davies ahead of Andrine Benjaminsen of Norway, photo: Rob Lines

Megan Carter-Davies took over in fourth place for the final leg. Three of the big countries teams were ahead, and the other one just behind! The runners are the absolute best runners from each country in this situation. (Incidentally the first four to start this last leg would all contest the knockout sprint final two days later.)

That her teammates sent Megan off in fourth would be a possibility that would have been discussed, and surely the clear wish that Megan will have carried from the team and coaches was to not come fourth! So it was "Monte Carlo or Bust!"

Unfortunately as Ralph has noted, the seconds were not favourable. There was a gap ahead and it was just too big for visual contact, and the gap behind was just sufficent. It was not at all like the situation in Denmark two years ago for the 2022 WOC Sprint Relay, when Megan was first setting off, a few seconds ahead of Tove, with the two leaders enjoying a big gap ahead of 3rd.

A miracle didn't work out this time for Megan. She had a small miss at control 1. Although she flew round the first forked section she didn't catch the leaders, although she did see them ahead at control 6. Norway caught up. She lost time in the second forked section and finished at the back of a group with Czechia, France and Hungary.

Meanwhile Tove Alexandersson running hard alongside Simona Aebersold for the win, missed out a control, in the same place Megan lost time. Sweden were disqualified. Norway got the bronze. Denmark also missed a control on the last leg.

Simona Aebersold brings the Swiss team in for the Gold, photo: Kristina Lindgren /IOF

Venla Harju brings Finland in, to what turned out to be silver, photo: Kristina Lindgren /IOF

The presentation stage in the Oriam, photo: on the red line

Summary

GB approached this home Sprint Relay with a good team and aiming for a medal. As it turned out over the first three legs, the best chance might have been if Megan had run with and against Norway and not the teams ahead, with the attitude of "if it's fourth then it's fourth". But that was never going to happen with a home Championships and Megan's style!

World Champs Relay medals are usually swept up by three of the big four orienteering countries (Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Finland.) Things do happen in relays, and other countries have good runners too, but mostly the sum of the runner by runner comparisons favour the big four.

So top-6 is a more realistic aim than a medal for the stronger countries outside the big-4. GB can often aim for this, as can France, Denmark, Czechia. A medal is a much bigger ask. The runners have to outdo those of two of the big-4 countries. Basically they need to run very well, have some luck, and for at least two World Class runners across the big-4 teams to lose time.

It can happen in Sprint Relay. For a time Finland, and to a lesser extent Norway, were short of very strong sprint orienteers, and Denmark had some exceptional runners, so that altered the likely results. But Finland now fields strong teams, like those of Norway, Switzerland and Sweden. This year's race there was an opening: not against a very impressive Swiss performance. And not really against Finland either - they were impressive too: Grace was 15 seconds quicker than Maija Sianoja on leg 1, but the Finnish men were 29 seconds quicker than the GB men, and Venla Harju ran the third fastest time on the last leg - quicker than Andrine Benjaminsen for Norway. But there was a chance as Sweden mispunched (probably a result of the very competitive last leg situation with Switzerland) and the Norway Leg 2 runner lost time.