For third year in a row, Thierry Gueorgiou was leading the World Orienteering Championships relay on the last leg. And for third year in a row, something dramatic happened.

This time Gueorgioou was in lead, together win Valentin Novikov, Russia, just a couple of kilometres before the finish, when he suddenly skipped a control. The audience followed the tracking live on a big screen, and saw Gueorgiou continue from the 16th control directly to the 18th. Gueorgiou only realised his mistake a couple of controls later, and turned back. But he had lost five minutes, and there was no way he was going to get back to the fight for medals. Finally a very disappointed Gueorgiou brought France to finish on an 8th place.

In the meanwhile, Valentin Novikov made a perfect race on the last leg, and had time to celebrate the victory with the entire Russian team already at the last control. Norway finished second and Switzerland third.

 

Photo: Erik Borg

Andrey Khramov, Valentin Novikov and Dmitriy Tsvetkov with the WOC mascot.

Leading results

1) Russia 2:09:51
2) Norway 2:10:34
3) Switzerland 2:11:03
4) Great Britain 2:11:10
5) Czech Republic 2:11:58
6) Sweden 2:13:44