The 2010 Junior World Orienteering Championships commenced today with the Sprint Distance Race at Aalborg University, Denmark. The home team live up to the hype and won both Men’s and Women’s classes, a fantastic effort. Rasmus Thrane Hansen won the Men’s class by 19 secs from Great Britain’s Kristian Jones and Norwegian Vegard Danielsen and Swede Jonas Leanderson shared 3rd place. Ida Bobach’s winning margin in the women’s class was 24 secs, and impressive margin over the 2.3km course. Poland had a fantastic day with Hanna Wisniewska 2nd, and Monika Gajda 3rd place.

ACT’s Belinda Lawford, in her 4th JWOC was the best performing Aussie, finishing 37th, 2mins26secs behind the winner.

ACT’s Lachlan Dow was the best of the men finishing 43rd, only 1min36secs behind the winner. Oliver Poland 57th and Ian Lawford 67th both had great runs in their first JWOC races which is sure to give them plenty of confidence for the rest of the championships. NSW’s Josh Blatchford was equal with Ian in 67th.

Keep an eye on the team blog for more news and pictures (when the team has finished cooling down).

Results:

2010 Junior World orienteering Championships, Aalborg, Denmark.

Men 2.7km

Women 2.3km