Nopesport

The World University Orienteering Championships today provided an exciting sprint race around the town of Borlänge in Sweden, with home favourite Jerker Lysell winning by just nine seconds, in a time of 13:58 for the 3.3km course.

Following on from his Bronze medal at the WUOC Sprint in Estonia back in 2008, Scott Fraser again had a storming race to finish in first place, but he had to watch as Jerker Lysell came home eight seconds clear to steal Gold, leaving Scott to settle for Silver. Scott said he had a near perfect run and was pleased with his race, but disappointed not to win Gold. Lysell however has some sprint pedigree, having won Silver earlier in the year at the World Cup knockout sprint races round Stockholm in his first year as a senior. Further back in third place was Severin Howald of Switzerland with a time of 14:25.

The rest of the British men did well, all finishing within the top 20. Alasdair McLeod again posted an good time of 15:33 early on and finished back in joint 19th, while Graham Gristwood finished in 12th with a time of 15:08, but will be unhappy having lost 30seconds in the last part of the race. Nicolas Simonin of Ireland finished back in joint 33rd with a time of 16:02.

On the 2.6km women's race it was France's Anelie Chataing who won the race by seven seconds from Switzerland's Caroline Cejka with a time of 13:30. Italy's Michaela Guizzardi, the last starter of the top 3, held a slender lead of 3 seconds through the first two radio controls but missed in the final section of the course to finish 25 seconds down in Bronze medal position.

Ireland's Niamh O'Boyle finished down in joint 29th, 1:40 down, while top Brit was Rebecca Harding who finished in 38th with a time of 15:32. Given Rebecca was a similar time down on the winner at the JWOC sprint just a couple of weeks ago, but finished in 28th, this is a good result against a tough field. Tessa Hill and Anne Edwards both made it into the top 50, just two seconds apart, with Tessa posting a time of 16:06 in 48th with Anne in 49th.

Elsewhere there were some good results for some of the less prominent nations, with 6th place of Angela Simpson of New Zealand and 20th place for Qiaohong Mo of China in the women's race.

Provisional results:

Men, 3.3km

       Name             Nation     Time      
1.    Jerker Lysell        SWE    13:58    +00:00
2.    Scott Fraser        GBR    14:07    +00:08
3.    Severin Howald        SUI    14:25    +00:26
4.    Jan Prochazka        CZE    14:29    +00:31
5.    Kyril Nikolov        BUL    14:36    +00:37
6.    Stepan Kodeda        CZE    14:43    +00:44
7.    Jonas Vytautas Gvildys    LTU    14:56    +00:57
8.    Patrik Karlsson        SWE    14:58    +00:59
9.    Tomas Dlabaja        CZE    14:59    +01:00
10.    Olli-Pekka Koistinen    FIN    14:59    +01:00

12.    Graham Gristwood    GBR    15:08    +01:09
19.    Alasdair McLeod        GBR    15:33    +01:34
33.    Nicolas Simonin        IRL    16:02    +02:03
47.    Colm Hill        IRL    16:41    +02:42
 

Women 2.7km

       Name             Nation     Time      
1.    Anelie Chataing        FRA    13:30    +00:00
2.    Caroline Cejka        SUI    13:37    +00:07
3.    Michaela Guizzardi    ITA    13:55    +00:25
4.    Sabine Hauswirth    SUI    13:57    +00:27
5.    Sofia Haajanen        FIN    14:03    +00:33
6.    Angela Simpson        NZL    14:06    +00:36
7.    Grete Gutmann        EST    14:12    +00:42
8.    Svetlana Mironova    RUS    14:18    +00:48
9.    Anastasiia Danylova    UKR    14:20    +00:50
10.    Iveta Duchova        CZE    14:20    +00:50
=    Olga Sluta        UKR    14:20    +00:50

29.    Niamh O´Boyle        IRL    15:10    +01:40
38.    Rebecca Harding        GBR    15:32    +02:02
48.    Tessa Hill        GBR    16:06    +02:36
49.    Anne Edwards        GBR    16:08    +02:38
 

Final results will be available here on the WUOC website.