World University Championships - Mixed Sprint Relay, Middle and Forest Relay

World University Championships Update - Part Two

Over the weekend, the Championships saw the Mixed Sprint Relay on Friday, followed by the Middle on Saturday and Forest Relay on Sunday.

Mixed Sprint Relay

As the results in the Individual Sprint didn’t really reflect the performances, there were hopes that the team could be close to a medal, if all went well. The team of Fiona Bunn, Flurry Grierson, Peter Molloy, and Cecilie Andersen were the team who lined up for the Mixed Sprint Relay in Langenthal and in a race which was decided on the third leg with the leading runner of Sweden making a mistake in the route choice.  In the end, it allowed Switzerland to take the lead and secure the gold medal pushing hard until the end.  Sweden took silver, Finland bronze and there was an exciting battle between Great Britain and the Czech Republic which saw the British team claim 5th place.

Middle

In Saturday’s Middle Ida Haapala of Finland and Viktor Svensk of Sweden took home the titles in a technically highly demanding Jura Mountain Forest, with steep uphill and downhill passages, lots of rocks, and boulders, and often dense vegetation which made it paramount to navigate carefully and precisely.

For Great Britain in the men’s Matt Gooch put in a solid performance to finish just inside the top 20 (19th) and Rachel Brown put in another good run to finish in 22nd place, just one ahead of Laura King (23rd).

Forest Relay

The final day of the competition was the Forest Relay where Great Britain had a representation of two male and two female teams, in what was a tight fight for victory in both races.  France took the title in the women’s after the last small look of five close controls decided the race and saw their last runner sneak through the thickets and appear as the first runner at the last control.  In the men’s France and Sweden took the lead at the arena passage and Viktor Svensk of Sweden kept calm and pushed hard hoping to outrun Mathieu Perrin (France) on the last meters of the race.  However, the Swede did not know that they had missed a control and were out of the race for medals.

Fiona Bunn put in a fantastic first leg to be the 2nd quickest female home, with the other two members Laura King and Cecilie Andersen putting in strong legs for the team to come home in 7th place. In the men’s the GB team of Peter Molloy, Matthew Gooch and Alastair Thomas finished in 8th place.

Photo supplied by the Official Photographer of the event.