Nopesport

The Junior World Orienteering Championships 2006 opened today with the sprint race round the host town of Druskininkai in the Southern corner of Lithuania. In hot conditions of close to 30°C the men faced 3.1km while the women had 2.5km. Competitors were first taken on a loop through the town where route choice was trickiest then back through a spectator control to a further loop through the forest where more precise navigation was necessary.

The women were off first and it was JWOC debutantes Rebecca Roberts and Anne Edwards who were first into the fray for GBR with 2nd and 4th starts respectively. Both faired well, with Anne coming in with a time of 15:04.3 resulting in a position of 95th but Becca's time of 13:19.4 saw her just outside the top 50 in 52nd place. Just ahead of her was fellow debutante Tess Hill, her time 6 seconds quicker bringing her 48th place. At the top however it was the hotly tipped Norwegian Ingunn Weltzien Hultgren who just pipped Aussie Hanny Alston by 4 seconds to take Gold in a time of 10:46.8, the pair over 35 seconds clear of Eva Svensson of SWEDEN in 3rd spot. After that it was a bit more tightly packed with a minute covering the rest of the top 20. The other British women all finished in the top 100 with Lizzie Adams in 80th, Rose Hodkinson in 97th and Ruth Holmes in 99th.

In the mens race it was a much closer affair with a minute and a half covering the top 50 places. Sweden took Gold and Silver with Mikael Kristensson winning in a time of 11:44.8, 9 seconds clear of teammate Patrik Karlsson who was only 2 seconds clear of Ruslan Glebov of the Ukraine. Britain's top hope was with Scott Fraser having won the then unofficial sprint race at JWOC last year in Switzerland. It wasn't to be for Scott today however. After a tentative start he admitted to being dissapointed that he had lost it a bit in the forest where he missed on a couple of controls. The result of 12th place in a time of 12:19.7 was still a promising start to the week. Duncan Coombs was next best Brit in 45th place with a time of 13:07.5
while Edinburgh University teammates Oleg Chepelin and James Tullie weren't far behind in times of 13:14.5 and 13:25.2 leaving them in 51st and 63rd places respectively. JWOC debutantes Douglas Tullie and Joe Mercer both came home in the top 100, Doug in 76th and Joe in 93rd.

Mens Results:
1 Mikael Kristensson SWEDEN 0:11:44.8
2 Patrik Karlsson SWEDEN 0:11:53.5
3 Ruslan Glebov UKRAINE 0:11:55.9
4 Verdeyen Jochen BELGIUM 0:11:59.7
5 Sergei Rizhkov BELARUS 0:12:02.4
6 Matthew Parton AUSTRALIA 0:12:08.4
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12 Scott Fraser GREAT BRITAIN 0:12:19.7
45 Duncan Coombs GREAT BRITAIN 0:13:07.5
51 Oleg Chepelin GREAT BRITAIN 0:13:14.5
63 James Tullie GREAT BRITAIN 0:13:25.2
76 Douglas Tullie GREAT BRITAIN 0:13:41.0
93 Joe Mercer GREAT BRITAIN 0:13:59.9
126 Nicolas Simonin IRELAND 0:15:08.6
128 Seamus O Boyle IRELAND 0:15:17.2
133 Patrick Higgins IRELAND 0:15:41.1

Women's Results
1 Ingunn Hultgren Weltzien NORWAY 0:10:46.8
2 Hanny Allston AUSTRALIA 0:10:50.1
3 Eva Svensson SWEDEN 0:11:25.3
4 Jana Vaculikova CZECH REPUBLIC 0:11:32.5
5 Ekaterina Terekhova RUSSIA 0:11:41.0
6 Fanny Welle-Stand Horn NORWAY 0:11:42.0
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48 Tessa Hill GREAT BRITAIN 0:13:13.7
52 Rebecca Roberts GREAT BRITAIN 0:13:19.4
80 Lizzie Adams GREAT BRITAIN 0:14:07.7
95 Anne Edwards GREAT BRITAIN 0:15:04.3
97 Rose Hodkinson GREAT BRITAIN 0:15:07.7
99 Ruth Holmes GREAT BRITAIN 0:15:22.8

Full Results and Routes, along with live coverage of tomorrows classic race can be found here. Photos from the nopesport reporters and other British supporters will follow during the week.