Nopesport

Jani Lakanen : credit alternativet

Another final completed and another set of medals dished out. Finlands Jani Lakanen took gold and was crowned long distance champion and showed his deglight as he punced the air the whole way down the finish chute. Marc Lauenstein SUI took silver with a superb run considering he only decided at the last minute to take time out from revising for his Medical degree exams next week to run WOC. Last year winner, Andrey Khramov took 3rd place.

The top mens GBR result came from Jamie Stevenson who finished 14th. A slghtly disappionted Jamie, who was 4th at the 1st radio, commented that he 'missed between 8 and 12' and he ran most of the course on his own which didn't help his cause.

Jon Duncan was only 3 places further back in 17th. JD told nopesport that he lost 2mins on the last loop so was disappointed with that but overall was satisfied with his run.

The womens race was won again by Simone Niggli-Luder. A superb run by Marianne Anderson kept her in the lead for most of the race but an uncharacteristically nervous Simone showed her true form and reeled Marianne in to take victory by just 25secs. Dana Brozková set the pace in the early part of the course and posted the fastest time to the 1st radio control but she reflected later that 'maybe i went out too fast, but you have to go fast to do well'.

A happy Jenny Whitehead could be found at the finish as she marked her GB WOC team come-back with the highest GB position - 26th.

Rachel Elder finished just behind Jenny in 28th place. Nopesport caught a few words with Rachel 'Its very long, hilly and tough. There are two long legs that on the course 2-3 and 7-8.' Rachel knew that the distances between the drinks controls and knew there was a long leg when two drinks controls were one after the other on the control descriptions. 'The forest is fast but green in places; however you can always peg it around the track.' Rachel was pleased with her WOC debut. 'Silly mistakes were made in the qualifiers but today there were no such mistakes only a few hesitations.' Rachel made sure that she stopped before the long legs to find the best route choice which she executed well.

The final GB runner, reportedly described by GBR's Dave Peel as 'GBR's secret weapon', was Alison O'Neill who finished in 30th place.

Tomorrow is a deserved rest day for the WOC competitors but the WOC tour races continue. Friday is the next WOC final - the middle! find out if someone can upset the odds or will 'Tero' regain supreme again!

This is the WOC live team signing off after another great days racing.

A happy Jenny Whitehead : credit alternativet