Nopesport

The final set of races at JWOC have been completed, and it was double joy for Sweden. The men’s team of Johan Lindahl, Mattias Millinger and Martin Johansson (Classic race silver medallist) won by over 2 and a half minutes from a strong Czech team, who beat the Swiss back by a further 1 and a half minutes.

GBR 1 finished in 14th place (11th nation), 2 places lower than last year. Scott Fraser got off to a steady start, though he was unable to remain with the leading group, and finished in 24th. Mark Nixon then took over on 2nd leg, and with the 16th fastest leg time managed to pull the team up to 19th. Graham Gristwood then ran a very fast last leg to get the 6th fastest leg time, and this was enough to haul back a few more places, though he couldn’t quite overtake the French team who finished just 3 seconds in front.
GBR 2, with Dan Halliday running first leg, Mark Saunders on the middle leg and David Hodkinson on the final leg, finished in 28th place.

In the women’s race Sweden (Elina Skantze, Anna Persson and Helen Jansson) were clear winners again with a margin of 2 minutes in front of their nearest rivals. Finland finished in 2nd place after Anni-Maija Fincke (Bronze medallist in the short race) stormed clear of the pack on first leg to come home nearly 3 minutes clear. Norway finished just 30 seconds after the Finns to complete a Scandinavian top 3.

GBR 1 finished in 18th place (12th nation). Cerys Manning ran the first leg and came back in 32nd place. She handed over to Mhairi Mackenzie who ran a strong middle leg with the 7th fastest leg time to pull the team up to 22nd. Alison O’Neil (Bronze medallist in the classic race) posted the 15th fastest time on the final leg to pull the team up another 4 places.

GBR 2 finished 27th, with Lizzie Adams on first leg finishing just in front of Cerys. Liz Bridge ran the middle leg, and Helen Gardner got the 17th fastest time on last leg, just 20 seconds behind Alison, to pull the team up a few more places.