US Team Results at World Orienteering Championships 2019

Middle Qualification, August 13

  • MEN
    • Heat 1
      1. Olav Lundanes (NOR), 24:20; 2. Daniel Hubmann (SUI), 25:12; 3. Oleksandr Kratov (UKR), 26:25; 20. Anton Salmenkylä 30:25; 29. Michael Svoboda (CAN), 37:39; 35. Jordan Laughlin, 44:41
    • Heat 2
      1. Lucas Basset (FRA), 24:49; 2. Magne Daehli (NOR), 25:40; 3. J.V. Guildys (LIT), 25:53; 27. Robert Graham (CAN), 33:45, 30. Eric Bone, 34:41
    • Heat 3
      1. Matthias Kyburz (SUI), 25:21; Gustav Bergman (SWE), 25:38; Aleksi Niemi (FIN), 26:17; 23. Jan Erik Naess (CAN), 31:39, 34. Greg Ahlswede, 37:54
       
  • WOMEN
    • Heat 1
      1. Anne Margrethe Hausken Nordberg (NOR), 28:59; 2. Natalia Gemperly (RUS), 29:28; 3. Evely Kaasiku (EST), 30:13; 23. Emma Waddington (CAN), 39:27, 33. Sydney Fisher, 61:14
    • Heat 2
      1. Kamilla Olaussen (NOR), 29:16; 2. Lina Strand (SWE), 29:23; 3. Marika Teini (FIN), 29:57; 24. Åsne Skram Trømborg, 39:39; 27. Pia Blake (CAN), 41:56
    • Heat 3
      1. Cecilie Friberg Klysner (DEN), 28:45; 2. Tove Alexandersson (SWE), 28:51; 3. Marianne Andersen (NOR), 29:20; 14. Emily Kemp (CAN), 34:58; 29. Alison Campbell, 49:40; 32. Jennifer MacKeigan (CAN), 71:26

Commentary from Boris Granovskiy (U.S. National Team member):

The 2019 World Orienteering Championships (WOC) got underway today in Ostfold, Norway with the middle distance qualification race.

This year’s WOC is the first forest-only WOC since before the introduction of the sprint discipline in 2001. Forest and sprint WOCs are set to alternate annually starting this year.

In the middle distance qualifiers, top 15 competitors in each heat qualified for the finals outright. Additionally, the top runner from each country that did not have an automatic qualifier also made it through to the finals, up to a total of 60 finalists.

The top U.S. performance of the day was by Anton Salmenkylä (CSU / Helsingin Suunnistajat), who finished 20th in his heat, less than 2 minutes from qualifying outright. He will race in the middle distance finals on Friday along with Åsne Skram Trømborg, who had the best U.S. result on the women’s side, finishing 24th in her heat.

The full results can be found here, and the U.S. results are summarized below.

WOC continues tomorrow with the Long Distance final. Racing for the U.S. are Jordan Laughlin, Morten Jorgensen, Syd Fisher, and Ali Crocker. You can follow the races live here. Go Team USA!

Plc    Name                  Heat       Time    Time behind leader
20     Anton Salmenkylä       Men 1     30:25        +06:05
24     Åsne Skram Trømborg  Women 2     39:39        +10:23
29     Alison Campbell      Women 3     49:40        +20:55
30     Eric Bone              Men 2     34:41        +09:52
33     Sydney Fisher        Women 1     61:14        +32:15
34     Gregory Ahlswede       Men 3     37:54        +12:33
35     Jordan Laughlin        Men 1     44:41        +20:21

Long Final, August 14

  • MEN
    • 1. Olav Lundanes (NOR), 1:30:09
      2. Kasper Fosser (NOR), 1:31:48
      3. Daniel Hubmann (SUI), 1:33:07
      59. Morten Jorgensen, 2:07:18 (+37:09)
      60. Jordan Laughlin, 2:09:10 (+39:01)
      68. Will Critchley (CAN), 2:24:39 (+54:30)
  • WOMEN
    • 1. Tove Alexandersson (SWE), 1:09:00
      2. Lina Strand (SWE), 1:15:16
      3. Simona Aebersold (SUI), 1:15:50
      41. Ali Crocker, 1:37:27 (+28:27)
      62. Syd Fisher, 2:10:51 (+1:01:51)
      (Canada’s Emma Waddington dns)

Commentary from Boris:

On Wednesday the first medals of WOC 2019 were handed out, and long distance world champions were crowned. For the fourth year in a row on both the men’s and women’s sides, the champions are Olav Lundanes (Norway) and Tove Alexandersson (Sweden). Olav won an exciting close race, defeating teammate (and still junior!) Kaspar Fosser by 1:39, while Tove won in dominant fashion, finishing a whole 6:16 ahead of silver medalist Lina Strand (Sweden).

Team USA had four competitors, and four solid performances. On the women’s side, Ali Crocker held the lead when she finished and ended up in 41st place. Sydney Fisher ended up 62nd in her first WOC long distance race. Among the men, Morten Jorgensen finished just ahead of Jordan Laughlin, as they took places 59 and 60.

You can read the race report on World Of O, and see the full results on the WOC website.

Follow Team USA on Facebook (@usorienteeringteam) or Instagram, as they have been great at posting photos and videos direct from the races!

Middle Final, August 16

  • MEN
    • 1. Olav Lundanes (NOR), 34:18
      2. Gustav Bergman (SWE), 34:29
      3. Magne Daehli (NOR), 34:47
      37. Anton Salmenkylä, 42:29 (+8:11)
      42. Jan Erik Naess (CAN), 43:15 (+8:57)
  • WOMEN
    • 1. Tove Alexandersson (SWE), 38:20
      2. Simona Aebersold (SUI), 38:25
      3. Natalia Gemperle (RUS), 40:05
      26. Emily Kemp (CAN), 44:48 (+6:28)
      49. Åsne Skram Trømborg, 55:47 (+17:27)

Commentary from Boris:

Today at WOC was the middle distance final. The story at the top of the leaderboard was the same as for the long distance, with Olav Lundanes (Norway) and Tove Alexandersson (Sweden) becoming double gold medalists, albeit by much smaller margins than on Wednesday. Lundanes held off Sweden’s Gustav Bergman by 11 seconds, while Tove had just five seconds to spare in her win over Switzerland’s Simona Aebersold. (Places 3-7 were about 1:30 behind Simona, but within 7 seconds of each other!)

On the women’s side, Team USA was represented by  Åsne Skram Trømborg, who was in the lead early on and finished in an excellent 49th place. Running later in the day, Anton Salmenkylä did even better, finishing 37th, just over 8 minutes behind the world champion. This was the best U.S. men’s middle distance result at WOC of all time, improving on Brian May’s 44th place from WOC 2003. Congratulations Anton and Åsne on some great races! You can see full results here and maps and route choices here.

Tomorrow WOC concludes with the relay races. The U.S. teams, in running order, are as follows:

Women
Alison Crocker
Åsne Skram Trømborg
Alison Campbell

Men
Morten Jørgensen
Anton Salmenkylä
Greg Ahlswede

You can see the full start list and follow the race live here. Go Team USA!!

Relay, August 17

  • WOMEN
    • 1. Sweden, 1:35:49 (Strand, Alexandersson, Ohlsson)
      2. Switzerland, 1:35:53 (Hauswirth, Aebersold, Jakob)
      3. Russian Federation, 1:36:56 (Rudnaya, Riabkina, Gemperle)
      18. Canada, 1:58:24 (+22:35) (Waddington, Kemp, Blake)
      22. United States, 2:14:41 (+38:52) (Crocker, Trømborg, Campbell)
  • MEN
    • 1. Sweden, 1:40:42 (Runesson, Svensk, Bergman)
      2. Finland, 1:42:16 (Niemi, Kuukka, Kurmula)
      3. France, 1:42:25 (Rio, Tranchand, Basset)
      20. United States, 2:01:54 (+21:12) (Jørgensen, Salmenkylä, Ahlswede)
      29. Canada, 2:18:48 (+38:06) (Naess, Graham, Svoboda)