The trials and tribulations of the Long race were left behind today, as Matt Fellbaum recorded the joint best result for a GB man at JWOC, equalling Kris Jones' silver in the same discipline in 2010.
Matt has spent a lot of time improving his form and fitness for his final stab at the Junior World Orienteering Championships (JWOC) this year and this paid off in a highly technical sprint, which played perfectly into his hands. Starting off at a steady, but safe pace, he navigated through the tricky early section, reminiscent of many British style urban and sprint races, and then began to open up through some of the longer legs. Many of Matt's strong rivals, including yesterday's gold medallist, Kasper Fosser (NOR), all fell foul of the technical nature of the course, as they outran their navigational speed. Having started in the early block of runners, he led for the vast majority of the race and was only pipped by German runner, Colin Kolbe, in the final stages of an exciting sprint. Afterwards he said: "I didn't feel that it was a particularly quick performance, but I think I got nearly all the route choices right and I execute those well, losing very little time across the entire course. Although I still don't feel I'm a sprinter, I'll take that result!"
In the girl's race, Fiona Bunn and Grace Molloy, ran solid enough races to record their first top 20's of the week, and although they felt that their runs had been scrappy at times, they both said they didn't feel like they lost more than a few seconds here and there. Simona Aerbersold (SUI) continued her domination of the women's programme, with her second gold in two days. The rest of the team had mixed emotions following their runs, but the whole team have been buoyed by Matt's result and are looking forward to a day's rest after a tough two days of racing and will return to competition on Thursday, with the Middle qualification race in the highly unusual and extremely technical woodland of Bocsa Zoldhalom.
2 |
Matthew Fellbaum |
GBR Great Britain |
M20 |
14:50:00 |
15:56 (2) |
+00:08 |
15 |
Fiona Bunn |
GBR Great Britain |
W20 |
15:58:00 |
17:33 (15) |
+01:58 |
17 |
Grace Molloy |
GBR Great Britain |
W20 |
16:03:00 |
17:44 (17) |
+02:09 |
28 |
Aidan Rigby |
GBR Great Britain |
M20 |
15:52:00 |
16:52 (28) |
+01:04 |
37 |
Alex Carcas |
GBR Great Britain |
M20 |
16:22:00 |
17:19 (37) |
+01:31 |
46 |
Eddie Narbett |
GBR Great Britain |
M20 |
15:09:00 |
17:28 (46) |
+01:40 |
65 |
Chloe Potter |
GBR Great Britain |
W20 |
14:51:00 |
19:15 (65) |
+03:40 |
86 |
Emma Wilson |
GBR Great Britain |
W20 |
15:33:00 |
20:05 (86) |
+04:30 |
- |
Laura King |
GBR Great Britain |
W20 |
14:18:00 |
mp |