Wednesday saw the start of the European Orienteering Championships 2022, with around 300 athletes chasing the medals with the Middle-Distance qualifier opening the competition in the forests around Põlula, North-eastern Estonia.

Returning to the forest disciplines after a heavy sprint focus for the first half of 2022 and also it is the first European Orienteering Championships  forest competition since the 2018 Championships

Both men and women were divided into three qualification heats, where top 20 in each heat qualified for the Middle-distance finals on Saturday.

As expected, the vast majority of the favourites managed to qualify for the finals, with Andrine Benjaminsen (NOR), Marika Teini (FIN), and Simona Aebersold (SUI) winning their respective heat in the women’s qualification. Miika Kirmula (FIN), Gustav Bergman (SWE) and Tomas Krivda (CZE) took the wins in the men’s qualification.

For Great Britain, we saw Ralph Street run a great qualification race to finish 5^th and qualify for the Men’s final and Grace Molloy (9^th), Megan Carter-Davies (13^th) and Fiona Bunn (15^th) all qualifying into the Women’s final.

Yesterday afternoon (Thursday 4 August), the European Orienteering Championships saw a tough long-distance unfolding with Venla Harju (FIN) and Martin Regborn (SWE) being crowned as champions.

The race was run in low visibility in some parts and on tricky terrain, with many of the athletes unable to claim the perfect race. Unfortunately, Ralph Street was having a great race and looking strong for a top 20 finish, but unfortunately, mis punched at the drinks control.

In the women’s Megan was the highest placed athlete in 30th position.