World Ski Orienteering Championships: Finnish men dominate middle distance
Posted on | March 7, 2009 | Category: News
All the medals went to Finland in the men’s middle distance race in the World Ski Orienteering Championships today.
Olli-Markus Taivainen, not satisfied with the silver and bronze medals he had won in the previous races, won the gold by 37 seconds from his more experienced compatriot Staffan Tunis, with Matti Keskinarkaus taking third place a further 17 seconds down. The three individual medals are a remarkable achievement for Taivainen, who earlier this year dominated the Junior World Championships in Sweden. Two years ago he won gold and silver individual medals in sprint and long distance respectively at the JWOC in Austria, and last year he took the long distance silver medal in Bulgaria.
In today’s women’s race the Russian Tatiana Vlasova, who won four gold medals at the last World Championships, took her first gold medal here in Japan with a convincing victory by 1 minute and 23 seconds. Silver medallist was Helene Söderlund, Sweden, taking her third medal of the Championships, and the bronze went to another Swede, Josefine Engström, who has been steadily moving up the senior rankings.
The Championships end with the relay competition tomorrow.
Photo: Paula Lehtomäki
Photo: Paula Lehtomäki
Leading results:
Women
1) Tatiana Vlasova RUS 40:26
2) Helene Söderlund SWE 41:49
3) Josefine Engström SWE 42:05
4) Hanna-Maija Mäkelä FIN 42:27
5) Hannele Tonna FIN 42:42
6) Barbora Chudikova CZE 42:53
Men
1) Olli-Markus Taivainen FIN 37:12
2) Staffan Tunis FIN 37:49
3) Matti Keskinarkaus FIN 38:08
4) Andrei Lamov RUS 38:11
5) Peter Arnesson SWE 38:13
6) Andrey Grigoriev RUS 38:30
|| Print page ||Search
IOF Main Sponsor
IOF Sponsors
World Championships
Other Upcoming Events
IOF Partners
RSS