Louise 41st in Middle Distance Final!

Louise Oram raced to 41st place today in the middle distance final at the World Orienteering Championships. Louise felt she navigated well today and her route choices were good. However, she executed her routes over cautiously, and had too many hesitations. Overall Louise had only 1 or 2 minutes of errors, but was not aggressive enough to place higher. Louise felt her race was overall better than yesterday, so she's happy and confident going in to Thursday's long distance final.      

Louise catching her breath after the race. Photo credit: Adrian Zissos

At the top end of the results, it was a day of surprises. Women's favourite Simone Niggli made one large mistake, as she navigated to the wrong control (oops!), which left her in 5th place. Minna Kauppi of Finland added a 10th WOC gold medal to her collection today, with 2012 JWOC winner Tove Alexandersson (SWE) proving she can run with the best of them by claiming the silver medal. Tatyaya Riabkina (RUS) scooped up bronze.

In the men's race, favourite Thierry Gueorgiou could only manage 4th place; a mere 30 seconds behind winner Edgars Bertuks (LAT). Edgars goal for this race was to beat his best placing last year, which was 9th... looks like he managed that very well! Valentin Novikov of Russia, and Fabian Hertner of Switzerland rounded off the podium.

If you were able to watch the race live, you can still watch back the men's and women's GPS tracks. Select "from start" from the top of the left panel, then select the athletes you want to view. Press play, and watch the various micro route choices, speeds, and how much a minor hesitation can set up back against the best in the world! It's fun! You can also view the women's and men's results. You can also view Adrian's photos.

Tomorrow is a well deserved rest day, then Thursday is the long distance final. Louise is running for Canada in the long final. Her start time is 11:55am local time, right after Samantha Saeger of Team USA, who starts at 11:52. Prepare to witness the North American battle! Should be an exciting race! You can view the full women's and men's start lists. As ever, live TV and GPS coverage will be available on Thursday, for those who wish to forgo sleep in order to support Louise! We'll have some thoughts from Louise and Coach Magnus on the long distance race tomorrow, along with the relay team selection. Stay tuned!