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 |
