Great Britain's women's team finished in 11th place. Photo Credit David Rosen.

The relay was run from the same arena as the previous day's middle race. However, the courses were mostly in a completely different terrain type with much gentler hills and very fast underfoot with quite a few tracks.

Each nation could enter up to two teams of three runners in the men's and women's classes, but only the better-placed team features in the official rankings.

Unfortunately Scott Fraser's eyes did not improve overnight so he could not compete in the relay. Oleg Chepelin was promoted to the first team and unfortunately the second men's team had to be 'non-competitive'; they found a New Zealander for the last leg.

However, Great Britain had two full women's teams and on the first leg Laura Daniel had the best run finishing in 20th place only 3 minutes behind the leading team. Rebecca Harding, running first leg for the 'A' team, became rather isolated early on and finished 28th.

Taking over from Laura, Anne Edwards had a steady run and pulled up 5 places.  Jess Halliday on last leg gained a further place and they were 11th in the official results.

For the 'A' team, Hollie Orr pulled up 7 places and Tessa Hill also had a reasonably good run to place 17th (although as second team to finish they weren't officially ranked).

Doug Tullie starting first leg. Photo Credit David Rosen

Doug Tullie ran a solid first leg for the men finishing 14th, but he felt that he didn't quite have the leg speed in this very fast terrain to keep up with the leaders. Oleg Chepelin just made one error but nevertheless gained a place. On last leg, Graham Gristwood had a long gaffle but ran really to well to place Great Britain 8th in the official results.

Alasdair McLeod and Duncan Coombs also ran well for their 'mixed' team with Duncan finishing only yards behind Oleg at the end of leg two.

After the closing ceremony and banquet in the evening, the team return to Britain on Saturday. Graham Gristwood, Scott Fraser and Hollie Orr will be going on to run in the open World Championships in Trondheim Norway in August.

MEN
3 X 8.2 km
1. Sweden 2:02.01
2. Czech Republic 2:02.47
3. France 2:04.39
8. Great Britain 2:09.31
 Douglas Tullie 43.20
 Oleg Cheplin 44.16
 Graham Gristwood 41.55

GBR-2 (non-competitive) 
 Alasdair McLeod 44.22
 Duncan Coombs 43.29

27 nations competed

WOMEN
3 x 5.7 km
1. Switzerland 1:49.04
2. Finland 1:51.55
3. Czech Republic 1:52.05
11 Great Britain-B 2:03.39
 Laura Daniel 38.57
 Anne Edwards 41.50
 Jess Halliday 42.52
- Great Britain-A 2:06:05
 Rebecca Harding 44.13
 Hollie Orr 40.40
 Tessa Hill 41.12
22 nations competed

Article by David Rosen

Item posted by Gareth Candy

Photo Credit David Rosen

Graham Gristwood, from Sheffield Hallam University, won a Bronze Medal today at the World University Orienteering Championships in the Middle Distance.

The day started badly when Scott Fraser woke up with swollen eyes. He hoped it would improve but at his start time he could hardly see and he looked as though he just been in a boxing match. Clearly he had suffered an allergic reaction to something but we don't know what. We hope he recovers for Friday's relay.

Graham Gristwood was eager to make up for his disappointing (by his standards) run in the sprint. The first control was an easy short leg and was no problem. But the second control was much trickier and Graham lost over a minute. However, he kept his head and had a great run for the rest of the course to finish just 20 seconds behind Patrick Karlsen of Sweden. The Swiss Long Distance gold medallist Mattias Merz had another good run to win by 36 seconds, pushing Graham down to third. There was then a nailbiting half hour to see whether any of the remaining runners could better Graham's time. But none succeeded and Graham took the Bronze medal.

Oleg Cheplin and Doug Tullie both had a few too many misses and they were a little disappointed by their placings in the 30's.
 
Anne Edwards had a very steady run and was pleased with her 23rd position and Jess Halliday was only one place behind.  Hollie Orr never really settled into the map and made several errors while Laura Daniel probably suffered from being second into the forest and lost a lot of time at her third control - a cliff hidden by some thicker trees.
 
Men 4.9 km
1. Mattias Merz SUI 30.48 
2. Patrik Karlsson SWE 31.24 
3. Graham Gristwood GBR 31.44
32. Douglas Tullie GBR 36.09
38. Oleg Chepelin GBR 36.58
Scott Fraser did not start
108 starters

Women 4.0 km
1. Radka Brozkova CZE 30.05
2. Sofia Haajanen FIN 31.38
3. Ines Brodmann SUI 31.45
23. Anne Edwards GBR 36.30
24. Jess Halliday GBR 36.47
46. Hollie Orr GBR 41.50
78. Laura Daniel GBR 50.11

95 starters

Article by David Rosen

Item posted by Gareth Candy

SILVER MEDAL FOR SCOTT

This is a brilliant result for Scott Fraser, one better than the last World University Championships when he won bronze.

Photo credit: Dave Rosen

Scott said after the race that he had nearly a perfect run. He was very pleased that he'd kept it together in the technical section after hearing he was in the lead at the radio control. He added that he lost maybe 5 seconds at a major road crossing where there was some confusion with the officials. Scott was very pleased to win a medal but disappointed it wasn't gold.

The sprint race started in the centre of Borlange and went out through pleasant flat suburbs interspersed with parkland. Then, after a spectator control, the course finished with some very tricky steep hilly terrain by the river.

Alasdair McLeod had a very strong run early on and was pleased to get a top 20 placing by the end. Graham Gristwood had a great first two thirds and had the leading time at the spectator control. But it all went wrong in the technical final part and he even lost a few seconds getting to the last control when he ended up the wrong side of an uncrossable fence. His 12th place was very respectable but he had hoped for better and he will be fired up for tomorrow's Middle Distance race.

Scott Fraser had a minor incident at a major road when an official shouted at him thinking he was going to cross the road when in fact he was correctly heading for the bridge. That cost him a few seconds. Apart from that Scott had a clean run and his physical fitness came to the fore in the hilly last part where he was powering up the steep hills that were leaving other competitors gasping. He was in the lead at the spectator control and said "I knew the last part was going to be tricky and I knew I had to be careful to get it right". He finished in first place but only two minutes later Jerker Lysell from Sweden finished just 8 seconds quicker. 


Scott won bronze in the sprint two years ago in Estonia at the World University Championships so he was pleased to improve on that. But there are more medal opportunities for him in Thursday's Middle Distance and Friday's Relay.

Anne Edwards ran hard in the first part of the course but then found the hills tough at the end. Tessa Hill had a good run but made an error near the end which lost her several places. Rebecca Harding had the best British result in the women's race with a steady run in 39th place.


Men 3.3 km
1. Jerker Lysell SWE 13.58.9 
2. Scott Fraser GBR 14.07.4 
3. Severin Howald SUI 14.25.7
12. Graham Gristwood GBR 15.08.8
19. Alasdair McLeod GBR 15.33.5
85 runners

Women 2.6 km
1. Amelie Chataing FRA 13.30.1 
2. Caroline Cejka SUI 13.37.2
3. Michaela Guizzardi ITA 13.55.6
39. Rebecca Harding GBR 15.32.8
49. Tessa Hill GBR 16.06.6 
50. Anne Edwards GBR 16.08.4 
 76 runners

Article by Dave Rosen

Item posted by Gareth Candy