It was a solid day for the British team with all six GB athletes being made to work hard in a set of tough Long distance races writes Ed Nicholas.

The highest placing was 12th by Charlotte Watson (Edinburgh University Orienteering Club/University of Edinburgh) finishing in a time of 78.29 which was 4.02 down on the winner Anna Haataja from Finland.

In the Men's race World University Orienteering Championship's debutant Sasha Chepelin (Edinburgh University Orienteering Club/University of Edinburgh) finished highest Brit in a very credible 24th place in a time of 98.01 which was 14.02 down on the winner Rasamus Andersson from Sweden.

Results

Women 

12th Charlotte Watson 78.29

21st Jo Shepherd 84.33

23rd Lucy Butt 85.09

Men

24th Sasha Chepelin 98.01

32nd Aidan Smith 101.29

Jonny Crickmore dnf 

Below are some of the reflections from the Long distance athletes:

"My aim for today was a clean race with solid plans and to not let myself physically fade by the end due to the racing time being longer than what I'm used to. I'm happy to say that this was largely achieved and any gaps that I can now bridge in the future to the top guys will be mainly on the physical side. I haven't run in much Eastern European areas so it was a new, very enjoyable experience for me, especially as my technical abilities seemed to adapt very well to the new terrain."  Sasha Chepelin 

"I was largely clean technically apart from a few small time losses, but never felt like I was able to reach the higher speed I have in my best Long races. I was well prepared for the technical challenges and coped with the weather much better than I expected, but physically I felt flat from very early on in the race. I didn't have ideal physical preparation due to university exams in June, but training had been going well in the past few weeks so I was hoping for a better feeling, and will try and learn from how I approached the build up to the Wolrd University Orienteering Championships. I'm looking forward to my remaining two races now, particularly the Relay where we have two very strong men's teams."  Aidan Smith

"I felt pretty dire for most of the race but that was to be expected. I started off well and committed to my route choices but was quite scrappy into some of the controls and I made a quite a few stupid mistakes before the spectator. The spectator run through was quite long with a map exchange at the end of it, so after a much needed mental break I was determined to run the last loop cleanly. The last loop went better. Overall I was pleased with the result but felt I lost quite a lot of time in parts. After not much racing this year it was really fun to run a top quality race and I'm really excited for the rest of the races."  Charlotte Watson

"Although my fitness was not where it needed to be, I accepted this and focussed in what I could change - my navigation. I began the race well, after polishing off some jelly babies in the start lane and was really happy with my route choices into the controls. As I finished the first part of the course I began making mistakes as I was getting tired and losing focus. Going through spectator in 50 minutes was demoralising, especially when the expected winning time was only fifteen minutes longer but I stuck at the navigation and overall was really happy with my race considering my physical ability."  Lucy Butt

"It was my first forest race after I got an impact injury in my foot two weeks after the European Championships, so I didn't really know what to expect before the race. Mostly it was quite ok technically but I lost time near the control circle on a few controls and sometimes I should have been more disciplined with my compass in the vague areas. I felt like I was holding back a bit physically, particularly in the first part of the course when I was unsure how my foot would cope with the terrain. For some parts of the course I could almost forget about my foot but I did feel it a few times during the race which made me run more cautiously again for a while. Overall I am quite happy that I managed to race in the forest again without making my foot worse and feel like this has given me more confidence and eagerness to race harder in my other races this week."  Jo Shepherd