Swiss runner Fabian Hertner and Swedish star Helena Jansson won the first World Cup race of the season in very detailed and sandy terrain in New Zealand. Very intricate contour details made map reading and orienteering challenging, as demonstrated below.

In the men’s event all the top 8 were Swiss and Swedish runners while the women’s top 8 list featured five different nations, albeit with 4 Swedes amongst them.   The fact that the overseas nations raced well in the sand-dune terrain was expected, as particularly the Swedes and Danish have similar areas at home.    The men’s favourite, Norwegian Olav Lundares, looked to be the winner in the finish shute until it was discovered that he had punched a women’s control instead of his number 16.   Chris Forne’s 22^nd place was the best NZ result in the men.   Best Aussie Julian Dent was with the leaders in the early stages of the race but lost time later on to finish in 27th^{th place}, with Simon Uppill in 36th.   Lachy Dow made an excellent senior debut for 42^nd and rookie Chris Naunton was close behind in 48^th.

Swedish winner Helena Jansson told  orientering.se after the race, “I was prepared for a tricky race, and therefore I was very careful in my orienteering.   I did not do a technically clean race. But I am probably the one who did the least amount of mistakes, and that was rewarding.”     Grace Crane was Australia’s stand- out performer, and the first “down under” finisher,  with a fine 16^th place.   Lizzie Ingham, in 21^st was the best of the Kiwi women, with 5 others in the top 30, just ahead of Kathryn Preston in 31st.

 

See Mick Finn’s World Cup Orienteering #1video at:  http://tv.worldofo.com/?id=1215

Men     5.3 km             140 m 25 C

1  Fabian Hertner        SUI      32:58

2  Johan Runesson     SWE    33:55

3  Jerker Lysell           SWE    34:31

4  Matthias Merz         SUI      34:35

5  William Lind             SWE    35:01

6  Baptiste Rollier        SUI      35:13

22  Chris Forne           NZL     39:12

23  Thomas Reynolds NZL     39:21

26  Ross Morrison       NZL     39:31

27  Julian Dent          AUS    39:37

35  Matt Ogden           NZL     41:00

36  Simon Uppill        AUS    41:09

41  Brent Edwards      NZL     43:20

42  Lachlan Dow       AUS    43:24

45  Tane Cambridge   NZL     44:24

46  Gene Beveridge    NZL     45:12

46  Greg Flynn            NZL     45:12

48  Chris Naunton    AUS     45:15

51  Matthew Crane     GBR    46:47

52  Oliver Poland      AUS    46:55

53  Bruce Arthur       AUS    47:18

54  James Bradshaw NZL     47:25

55  Josh Blatchford AUS     49:32

56  Ian Lawford         AUS    50:46

57  Rob Preston        AUS    53:18

Toby Scott                         NZL     mp

63 starters

 

Women     4.3 km       120 m 19 C

1  Helena Jansson      SWE    33:31

2  Ida Bobach              DEN    34:54

3  Tatyana Riabkina    RUS    35:21

4  Tone Wigemyr        NOR    35:32

5  Annika Billstam       SWE    35:49

6  Venla Niemi            FIN      35:55

16  Grace Crane        AUS    39:12

21  Lizzie Ingham        NZL     40:09

22  Rachel Smith        NZL     41:10

23  Amber Morrison    NZL     42:31

27  Georgia Whitla      NZL     44:48

29  Jenni Adams         NZL     45:56

30  Laura Robertson   NZL     46:07

31  Kathryn Preston             AUS    46:33

33 Lara Prince            NZL     47:04

35  Rachel Effeney    AUS    47:22

36 Jasmine Neve       AUS    47:23

37  Tessa Ramsden    NZL     48:38

40  Aislinn Prendergast AUS 50:18

41  Imogene Scott      NZL     50:40

42  Felicity Brown     AUS    50:43

43  Mace Neve           AUS    50:58

44 Susanne Casanova AUS  53:11

47  Anna Sheldon     AUS    57:02

48  Bridget Anderson AUS 63:20

Greta Knarston     NZL     mp

52 starters.