The JWOC Long Distance saw a very close finish in the men’s race with 18 seconds separating 1st to 5th places and with 5 countries represented in the top 6.  Johan Runesson followed up his win in the Middle Distance with a Gold medal in this event, followed by Timo Sild from Estonia.  Jenny Lonnkvist took the Gold in the women’s event with Beata Falk again in 2nd place.  The increasing quality of French runners saw them take 4th and 5th place.

The Australian women put in very creditable performances with Laurina Neumann the best with a great run to finish in 25th place, just over 10 minutes behind the winner Jenny Lonnkvist, with Aislinn Predergast in 48th pace and Bridget Anderson continuing with her very consistent results at this championships in 51st place.  Nick Andrewartha was the best of the men in 88th place.

The long distance race was held on Partille-Gunnilse about 20 km from the event centre in the eastern outskirts of Göteborg. The early part of the courses covered complex and steeper topography with large rock features in the southwest part of the map area. Large linear marshes and lakes dominated the remainder of the map which contained very few paths. The hillier areas were dominated by pine forest with good runnability, with the valleys of deciduous forest having lower runnability. Higher grass also slowed runnability in the valleys.

Women

1. Jenny Lonnkvist (Sweden) 55:12
2. Beata Falk (Sweden) 55:50
3. Siri Ulvstead (Norway) 56:35
4. Marine Leloup (France) 58:30
5. Karine D’Harreville (France) 58:34
6. Venla Niemi (Finland) 59:33

25. Laurina Neumann 66:07 (+10:55)
48. Aislinn Predergast  72:58 (+17:46)
51. Bridget Anderson 73:37 (+18:25)
89. Krystal Neumann 85:44 (+30:32)
96. Rachael Effeney 93:41 (+38:29)
98. Belinda Lawford 94:47 (+39:35)

Men

1. Johan Runesson (Sweden) 72:22
2. Timo Sild (Estonia) 72:34
3. Matthias Kyburz (Switzerland) 72:36
4. Erik Sagvolden (Norway) 72:38
5. Olle Bostrom (Sweden) 72:40
6. Leo Laakkonen (Finland) 74:08

89. Nick Andrewartha 95:21 (+22:59)
111. Oscar Phillips 103:57 (+31:35)
120. Lachlan Dow 108:04 (+35:42)
123. Oliver Mitchell 109:48 (+37:26)
137. Geoff Stacey 128:52 (+56:30)
Leon Keely DNF