The World University Orienteering Champs took place in Switzerland last week. It was a big competition with teams from thirty countries and races on all the five days from Wednesday to Sunday. The age range for runners is now 18-25 (the upper limit used to be 28) and it provides a useful way for younger athletes to have international competition between the junior events (although many of the athletes are still juniors) and the World Cup.

Great Britain was represented by a full team of twelve athletes. There was a mix of results, as you would expect at this level, with some of the team taking the chance to record strong performances.

Our Report on the 2018 World University Championships (Finland.)

The British team (with their University affiliation) was:

• Alastair Thomas - Edinburgh
• Cecilie Andersen - Bath
• Chloe Potter - Sheffield
• Fiona Bunn - Edinburgh
• Flurry Grierson - UCL
• James Ackland - Cambridge
• Laura King - Edinburgh
• Matthew Gooch - Edinburgh
• Peter Molloy - Cambridge
• Pippa Carcas - Leeds
• Rachel Brown - Edinburgh
• Thomas Wilson - Barcelona

Alastair and Cecilie have run at a World Champs (WOC). Chloe ran in this year's European Champs. Fiona has World Cup experience including round 1 this year. Last year Laura ran two World Cup rounds and Thomas ran the European Champs. Peter and Rachel, both juniors, made senior debuts at the recent European Champs in tough Estonian forest. You can hear Peter discussing the experience in episode 67 of the Run-In podcast.

Races

There were individual races in sprint, middle and long, plus forest relays (multiple teams per country) and sprint relay (one team per country.)

Experience is a big factor in orienteering in determining the top positions, and one expects at a competition such as this that top positions in the forest races in particular will be taken by athletes from the big four countries. They willl have more experience of high-level competition and will probably have built on that with specific preparation for this one. Athletes from other countries will more likely be aiming for top-20 or perhaps top-10, or to be best from their country. Their medal chances will be in the sprint races (although note two of the Swedish team had medals from this year's inaugural WOC knockout sprint.) In the previous running of the World University Champs, in 2018, all the forest medals were won by the big four.

Congratulations thus to the French Women's Relay team, who won the final day's forest relay. Maelle Beauvir kept the team near the front on leg 1. Florence Hanauer kept them in the hunt and gained places on leg 2. And Cécile Calandry, a first year senior, went from 5th to 1st on the final leg, overtaking the leading teams as their runners lost time on a tricky final loop. Cécile also won bronze in the individual sprint.

The French Team, winners of the Women's Forest Relay, WUOC2022, image: event Facebook .

There were other medals won outside the big four countries, both by athletes with World Champs experience but nevertheless taking a step up with this success. Matthieu Perrin of France won bronze medals in both the individual forest races. And Colin Kolbe of Germany won bronze in the men's sprint.

GB Success

In the Sprint Relay the GB team of Fiona Bunn, Flurry Grierson, Peter Molloy and Cecilie Andersen came fifth, behind three of the big four, and Spain. Sprint Relay Results. Watch out for those names in Edinburgh in two years time.

Fiona also recorded a strong individual result in the long, coming 12th. You might like to view Winsplits for the World University Long race.

Rachel Brown won the battle for best GB woman in the World University Champs Middle Race as she and Laura King were eight seconds apart in 22nd and 23rd. Rachel was also the most successful GB woman in the sprint, coming 18th.

Matthew Gooch was the highest placed GB man in both forest races, with impressive results of 19th (middle) and 21st (long). In both races he was the first GB runner to start.

Other Reports

GPS tracking of selected runners and full results are available for all races.

The TV broadcasts of the sprint and middle races remain available. The middle race TV - see above link, with commentary on the men's race from Ralph Street accompanied by Ivar Lundanes (currently IL Tyrving's coach) has a lot of discussion about forest technique, illustrated by the cameras in the forest and GPS tracking.