In the men's sprint today, Sasha Chepelin ran a great race, from a late start, to finish in 5th, 17 seconds behind the eventual winner, Olli Ojanaho (Finland) and just 7 seconds behind bronze placed, Joey Hadorn (Switzerland).
The course was technical, with many intricate route choice legs that provided a challenge for the athletes. Sasha said "A steady and secure race overall, but with a few small misses which cost me a really nice result, but the podium is already well beyond what I was hoping for at the sprint race. I really didn't put much effort into geeking nor hours into training for the discipline. In the end, it was a case of planning ahead and taking the foot off the gas frequently, and I think that suited many forest specialists very well, including me!"
Alex Carcas and Ali Masson were within one second of each other, finishing 24th and 25th respectively. Both said they had good runs, but they both saw places afterwards where they could have saved time. Harrison McCartney finished in 80th, with only two and a half minutes separating the top 100.
In the girl's sprint race, Cecilie Anderson ran a strong race against a very competitive field to finish in 20th, +1:26 on the time of the eventual winner, Simona Aebersold (Switzerland). Alice Rigby followed in 27th after a solid and stable race. Finally, Chloe Potter ran into 52nd place.
The complexity of the course and high density of the controls made mistakes very easy to make. Unfortunately, due to this, Fiona Bunn, still recovering from illness, and Nathan Lawson saw missed punches, but no doubt they will be looking to bounce back strongly later in the week.