The winner on the middle distance at the Junior World Championships in Denmark was the same as last year. Tove Alexandersson just needed some time to get used to the Danish terrain.

-I didn’t think about defending the gold from last year. I just wanted to do a really good race, Tove says.

The young talented Swede didn’t start the middle race on full speed. That was really smart. Even if it was open land in the beginning of the course, it was very tricky with a lot of small knolls and contour details. Several runners lost minutes on the first controls. They ran too fast and suddenly did not know at all where they were.
After the challenging start Tove thinks the course was very easy and she speeded up, but didn’t do mistakes.
-The race was very good. Just like it was at the middle distance at the Junior World Championships last year, she says.

The course passed the arena just before the last loop. Tove had done well, but didn’t hear any results at the arena passage. The Swede from Dalarna just continued with her good racing. In the sprint and on the long distance Tove made several mistakes. She thinks she needed some time to get used to the Danish terrain.

Sweden had an incredible day on the middle distance with four of six medals. Lillian Forsgren was second in women’s class. In the men’s class Jonas Leandersson, bronze medallist from sprint, took silver. Olle Boström took his first individual medal, a bronze, in his last ndividual Junior World Championships race.
Ida Bobach, the winner of the first two races, didn’t take part in the middle distance. She had a little injury and took a day off.
The middle distance final took place in Kollerup, 40 kilometer west of Aalborg in Nordjylland in Denmark.

 

Photo: Erik Borg