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4th Place for Cat Taylor and Top 20 for Chris Smithard

Great Britain had eight representatives in the sprint with three men and five women competing. In the Men's race, Chris Smithard qualified very well from his heat finishing up in 2nd place. Will Gardner (20th) and Hector Haines (27th) unfortunately did not progress. In the women's qualification races Hollie Orr (12th); Cat Taylor (10th) and Charlotte Ward (6th) all qualified to the afternoon's final. Unfortunately, Jo Shepherd (19th) and Kirstin Maxwell (16th) did not qualify with Kirstin missing out by only 7 seconds.

Orienteering World Cup 2017 Round 3 Sprint Qualification Results

Sunday 27 August 2017

 

Sprint Qualification Results – for GB Men

 

MEN HEAT A

20        William Gardner         Great Britain               12:36 +0:45

 

MEN HEAT B

2          Chris Smithard           Great Britain               12:23 +0:10

 

MEN HEAT C

27        Hector Haines            Great Britain               13:38 +1:05

 

Sprint Qualification Results – GB Women

 

WOMEN HEAT A

12        Hollie Orr                    Great Britain               14:28 +0:53

19        Jo Shepherd              Great Britain               14:51 +1:16

 

WOMEN HEAT B

10        Catherine Taylor        Great Britain               13:33 +0:33

 

WOMEN HEAT C

6          Charlotte Ward          Great Britain               13:13 +0:30

16        Kirstin Maxwell          Great Britain               13:44 +1:01

Cat crossing the finish line Photo by: Jānis Līgats

In the Sprint Finals, the standout performance was in the women's race where Cat Taylor with a great run finished in 4th= and secured a place on the podium. Charlotte Ward finished in 32nd and Hollie Orr finished in 34th. In the Men's race, Chris Smithard finished in 17th place. In the B Finals, Will Gardner finished 6th; Kirstin Maxwell 20th and Jo Shepherd 26th.

Tove Alexandersson, Sweden was fastest in the Women’s Final for all but the first half-kilometre and won by 39 seconds. The Czech athlete Vojtech Kral took his first-ever World Cup win.
 

This was a clear triumph for Alexandersson, who lost little time on a very varied and quite complex course with streets, alleyways, parkland and forest, some parts flat and others with quite steep slopes with contouring legs and some route choice: an interesting and challenging course overall. Mistakes in route execution were made by most of the competitors at some point or other. Second and third places went to Natalia Gemperle, Russia and Sabine Hauswirth, Switzerland, both finishing strongly after being 7th and 9th respectively at the half-way point. Shortly before the end Cat Taylor, Great Britain was holding second place, but she lost a crucial 12 seconds on the final stretch and finished fourth equal with the Finn Merja Rantanen.
 

The sixth place has been Vojtech Kral’s best until now, achieved on several occasions including this year’s World Championship Sprint Final. Today he was never more than 11 seconds down on the lead, picking up that time between 1.3 and 1.9 km, and was strongest of all in the second half of the course. Fastest in the first half was Tim Robertson, New Zealand, but he then lost 29 seconds before the finish and ended eighth; Daniel Hubmann, Switzerland had a similar experience – second at halfway and finished ninth. Jerker Lysell, Sweden ran consistently throughout and finished second, whilst Swiss athlete Matthias Kyburz came up to third from sixth at halfway.
 

Orienteering World Cup 2017 Round 3 Sprint Final Results

 

MEN A – SPRINT FINAL

 

1          Vojtech Kral               Czech Republic         15:08 0:00

2          Jerker Lysell               Sweden                      15:13 +0:05

3          Matthias Kyburz         Switzerland                15:15 +0:07

4          Martin Regborn          Sweden                      15:26 +0:18

5          Frederic Tranchand   France                        15:28 +0:20

6          Gustav Bergman       Sweden                      15:35 +0:27

-------

17        Chris Smithard           Great Britain               15:59 +0:51

 

WOMEN A – SPRINT FINAL

 

1          Tove Alexandersson Sweden                      15:22 0:00

2          Natalia Gemperle      Russian Federation   16:01 +0:39

3          Sabine Hauswirth      Switzerland                16:04 +0:42

4          Merja Rantanen         Finland                       16:10 +0:48

4          Catherine Taylor        Great Britain               16:10 +0:48

6          Galina Vinogradova Russian Federation   16:13 +0:51

-------

32        Charlotte Ward          Great Britain               17:38 +2:16

34        Hollie Orr                    Great Britain               17:39 +2:17

 

MEN B – SPRINT FINAL

1          Jonas Leandersson               Sweden                      13:00 0:00

2          Artem Popov                          Russian Federation   13:35 +0:35

3          Robert Merl                            Austria                        13:55 +0:55

4          Aleksi Niemi                           Finland                       14:01 +1:01

5          Tomas Kubelka                     Czech Republic         14:02 +1:02

6          William Gardner                     Great Britain               14:07 +1:07

 

 

WOMEN B –SPRINT FINAL

2          Alva Olsson                            Sweden                      14:37 0:00

2          Annika Rihma                        Estonia                       14:42 +0:05

3          Emma Johansson                 Norway                       14:47 +0:10

4          Isia Basset                             France                        14:51 +0:14

5          Adela Indrakova                    Czech Republic         14:55 +0:18

6          Vendula Horcickova              Czech Republic         15:09 +0:32

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20       Kirstin Maxwell                       Great Britain               16:01 +1:24

26      Jo Shepherd                            Great Britain               16:28 +1:51

 

Cat Taylor (GBR), said:  “In the qualification, it felt like I was learning on the run about the terrain here. I made one bigger mistake, which meant I was on my toes for the Final and put together a nearly clean race. It's the best Sprint I've managed in a long time so I'm glad it came at the World Cup!”

Chris Smithard (GBR), said: “It was a solid race, one slight route choice error which cost a few seconds.  Possibly I was too cautious at times and could have run harder.  However, I’m happy to have delivered top 20 results on my three International Sprints this year which was significantly better than recent years.  Thanks to my coach Graham Gristwood who’s helped find the consistency I was looking for.  Now I’m hoping to push on to a higher level in 2018.”

Well done and congratulations Cat and Chris on your performances competing at this world level.  British Orienteering wishes all the GB athletes all the very best with their on-going training and performance planning.

Full details and results can be found on the event website www.wcup2017.lv.

Round 3 of this year’s World Cup has given competitors valuable experience of Latvian conditions and the organising teams plenty of practice, before next year’s World Championships in Latvia in early August.

The final round of the 2017 World Cup is at Grindelwald, Switzerland from 29 September to 1 October.

More news articles about the World Orienteering Cup / Round 3 can be found at the links below:

GB Women’s Relay team finish as 5th top nation at the World Cup

Challenging Day For The British Team In The Latvian Forest

GB athletes set to take on the Middle distance tomorrow at the World Cup

GB team set to compete in the World Orienteering Cup / Round 3

 

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