World Orienteering Championships, Long qualification: Niggli in front again
Posted on | July 15, 2012 | Category: News
Simone Niggli made the best possible start towards achieving another world Long distance title by easily winning her qualification heat today.
Niggli’s lead over second-placed Celine Dodin, France was 2.47 on the 8.3 km course. The times at the top in the other two heats were much closer: Ida Bobach, Denmark was only 6 seconds behind Minna Kauppi, Finland whilst Eva Jurenikova, Czech Republic was 44 seconds behind Russia’s Tatiana Ryabkina.
All the big names in the women’s class qualified for the finals, although Lizzie Ingham, New Zealand, a heat winner in the Sprint yesterday, just failed to qualify today.
The men’s heats were won by Olav Lundanes, Norway, Matthias Merz, Switzerland and Edgars Bertuks, Latvia. The last-named is the most surprising; he had a near-perfect run from the last start time in his heat. He finished 1.14 faster than Jan Sedivy, Czech Republic. Lundanes was a very clear winner by 2.10 over Dmitry Tsvetkov, Russia, whilst Merz was just 20 seconds faster than another Russian, Valentin Novikov.
Full results are on www.woc2012.ch. Tomorrow the Middle distance qualification heats take place, starting at 13.00 Swiss time.
More items on the World Championships and today’s races will appear in the Around the Arena section at the foot of this page.
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