Simone Niggli dominated the women’s sprint, with her 12th individual World Championship gold medal, from Minna Kauppi (FIN) and Lena Eliasson (SWE).

Hanny Allston completed another fantastic sprint race, to finish in 13.26, 9th place and 80 seconds behind Niggli.

12th starter Grace Elson, momentarily took the lead in a time of 14.42.3 (finally 30th place).  However, her glory only lasted 10 seconds, with Celine Dodin (FRA) ahead by 50 seconds.

Kathryn Ewels appeared to lose time early, finishing in 17.07, 46th place.

In the men’s sprint distance final, just 0.9 of a second separated Wednesday’s middle distance winner, Thierry Gueorgio (FRA) from Thursday’s long distance winner, Matthias Merz (SUI).  Gueorgio trailed Merz by 0.5 sec at both radio controls, but he was ahead when it mattered most.

Both Gueorgio and Merz said they were careful to take time to read the map, and choose the best route choices, especially near the end of the course.

Australia’s Julian Dent has completed his World Championship campaign with a solid run in the Sprint Distance Final, finishing 22nd.  Julian’s times were impressive at each radio control, at the time just 22 seconds behind the lead at Radio 1 and 37 seconds at Radio 2.  When Julian finished he was in 5th position, 40 seconds behind the lead, and just one second behind 3rd place.  Of course the favourites started last, but his time held up well, just 71 seconds behind the eventual winner.

Don’t forget to check the Aussie team blog for team reports.