Yesterday at the same arena as the middle distance on Tuesday the WOC relay’s were held with the start for both races being right in front of Darnaway Castle.

The Danish team of Maja Alm, Ida Bobach and Emma Klingenberg dominated from start to finish today to claim Denmark’s first women’s Relay title. There was a thrilling battle for the other medals, with Norway taking silver just ahead of Sweden, who took bronze. Maja Alm set up a comfortable lead right from the first control on the first leg, continuing her superb form this week which has now earnt Maja 3 gold medals.

In the men’s Relay a strong Swiss team of Fabian Hertner, Daniel Hubmann and Matthias Kyburz led throughout to take gold. Again the other medal positions were closely fought, with Magne Dæhli running a superb last lap to take Norway’s second silver medal of the day, while a young French team – running without Thierry Gueorgiou for the first time since 1995 – claimed bronze. The British men ran well to finish fourth in front of a vocal home crowd.

Men’s Relay Analysis-World Of O

The Australian women’s team finished in 18^th place. Laurina Neumann ran the first leg and she was placed 23^rd on this leg. Hanny Allston picked up some places on the second leg and was 7^th fastest on her leg. Anna Sheldon was placed 21^st on her third leg.

Anna- 3rd leg, starting

The Australian men did not have a good day and finished in 25^th place and behind the three countries that we are competing against to avoid relegation back to division three. Simon Uppill ran the first leg and he came in 21^st place (3:51 minutes down). Lachlan Dow was 22^nd on the second leg and Brodie Nankervis running his first WOC relay was 29^th. Unofficial point score (using new rules released yesterday) after the relays has Australia 4 points in front of Belarus and a clear 98 points in front of Ireland. Two countries will be demoted to Division three for WOC 2016.

So the final event at this WOC will be the Long Distance event at Glen Affric. The forest is a mix of pine, birch and oak, with steep slopes, complex contour detail, and few paths.

Glen Affric is classic Scottish orienteering terrain, and hosted the Long race the last time the World Championships were in Scotland in 1999. The Long race will test athletes’ physical endurance. The navigational emphasis is on choosing the right route, often with distances of one or two kilometres between controls. Athletes might have to choose between going over or round a big hill or steep-sided valley, meaning that they need to pick the route that plays to their strengths.

Australian runners start times are:

Women-Hanny Allston 12:46,Laurina Neumann 10:49 and Vanessa Round 11:37.

Men-Bryan Keely 11:15 and Simon Uppill 11:45.

Photos:Paul Prudhoe, Robin Uppill.