The World Orienteering Championships opened yesterday with Long Distance Qualifying races. The French team won all three mens heats with Thierry Gueorgiou in impressive form some 6 minutes ahead of the next competitor, Russian Alexey Bortnik. Julian Dent qualified in 13th place but Rob Preston missed out, with a 22nd place in his heat.
There was frustration for the Australian women; Vanessa Round missed qualification by 26 seconds, and Jasmine Neve by an even slimmer margin of 8 seconds. The winners of the womens heats were slower than the expected times for the courses of 45 minutes, with only Czech Dana Brozkova coming anywhere near in 46:33. Well known names qualified at the top of the heats, with Signe Soes (Den), Merja Rantanen (Fin), Helena Janssen (Swe), Mina Kauppi (Fin), and Annika Billstam (Swe) all comfortably through.
Competition continues today with the Middle Distance qualification races. See Australian Orienteering website for more detail on the courses and start times for our competitors.
