Hosts again lead the way at WMOC
Australia again led the way at the long distance finals at the World Masters Orienteering Championships today. While the host nation did not dominate to quite the same extent as they did in the sprint, they still took home six gold medals. Warren and Natasha Key both repeated their sprint victories in M50 and W35 respectively, as did Hermann Wehner (M85) and Jenny Bourne (W55). Paul Pacque went one better than the sprint in taking out M55, while the final Australian gold medallist was Cath Chalmers in W40. The hosts also took six silvers and three bronzes.
Non-European nations dominated the women’s classes, winning eight out of ten, with Australia and the United States taking three each. The three American gold medals matched Sweden’s performance.
Two classes which were won by Europeans provided two of the best races. In M40 Russia’s Alexey Marozov led five within two minutes of the lead, while M45 was even better, with five within 1.11. Per Magnusson’s loss of 52 seconds at the fourth-last dropped him from first to fourth and was the exact gap to German gold medallist Michael Thierolf. W50 was also an excellent contest with 34 seconds covering the medallists (who were only separated by one second at halfway). Natalia Deconescu took out one of the three American golds, while Liz Abbott held off a fast-finishing Carey Nazzer for silver.
The gold medallists were:
M35 Carsten Jorgensen (DEN)
M40 Alexey Morozov (RUS)
M45 Michael Thierolf (GER)
M50 Warren Key (AUS)
M55 Paul Pacque (AUS)
M60 Andy Hemsted (GBR)
M65 Rune Radestrom (SWE)
M70 Rodrigo Slavins (LAT)
M75 Sveinung Bleivkin (NOR)
M80 Helmer Ekberg (SWE)
M85 Hermann Wehner (AUS)
W35 Natasha Key (AUS)
W40 Cath Chalmers (AUS)
W45 Pavlina Brautigam (USA)
W50 Natalia Deconescu (USA)
W55 Jenny Bourne (AUS)
W60 Patricia Aspin (NZL)
W65 Sharon Crawford (USA)
W70 Birgitta Thunell (SWE)
W75 Nesta Leduc (CAN)
W80 Pella Rye (GBR)
Provisional results are available at the WMOC site.
Splits now available on Winsplits.