World Orienteering Championships – Long Distance Final

An astonishing race today with the men´s race being won by over 4 minutes and the women´s race having joint 1st place on the podium! With temperatures over 35degrees, little water avaliable and tough Ukranian terrain to run through, no wonder the runners looked completely fatigued as they crossed the finish line.”She is running, running running!…” the commentator screams into the microphone as Heli Jukkola sprints over the finish line into an astonishing 1st place, equal with her compatriot Finnish runner, Minna Kauppi. Utterly unheard of in the long distance discipline of orienteering to get the same time, especially for the gold medal!!Simone Niggli, former World Long Distance Champion, and yesterday´s World Middle Distance Champion, had to settle for the bronze as the Scandinavian double team took the championship title from the strong Swiss runner. The World Sprint Champion of 2006, Hanny Allston reached the podium in 6th place, a great result for the 21year old from Tasmania. The GB Ladies, Helen and Pippa, performed well in the monstrous heat to finish in 32nd and 42nd respectively. Matt Crane at the Middle Distance Final Yesterday Maksim Kovalenko (fartlex.com)The Men´s race was dominated by another Swiss runner, Mattias Merz who took the gold medal by just under 4 minutes from the 2nd placed runner, Andrey Khramov from Russia. Jamie Stevenson from Great Britain made a slower start but managed to pull back to finish in 5th position, only to drop down to 9th as Merz, Khramov and Nordberg stormed into the finish. A great result for the GB Team. Fellow team mate Jon Duncan had a exciting run, finishing in 18th.The Ukranian hosts also have something to cheers about today with Vyacheslav Mukhidinov finishing on the podium in 5th in the Men´s Race.So its congratulations to the Swiss and the Finns and good luck to all of those runners in the Relay on Saturday. Follow the Results Live here: http://woc2007.org.ua/live/index.html Women´s Results_1= Heli Jukkola (Finland) 01:20:171= Minna Kauppi (Finland) 01:20:173 Simone Niggli (Switzerland) 01:21:484 Anne Margrethe Hausken (Norway) 01:23:195 Marianne Andersen (Norway) 01:23:476 Hanny Allston (Australia) 01:24:1732 Helen Winskill (Great Britain) 01:40:0442 Pippa Whitehouse (Great Britain) 01:50:59Men´s Results:1 Matthias Merz (Switzerland) 01:44:282 Andrey Khramov (Russia) 01:48:063 Anders Nordberg (Norway) 01:48:364 Mats Haldin (Finland) 01:48:525 Vyacheslav Mukhidinov (Ukraine) 01:49:456 Roman Efimov (Russia) 01:49:509 Jamie Stevenson (Great Britain) 01:51:2818 Jon Duncan (Great Britain) 01:55:55

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