Claire 28th in World Championship Middle Distance
This afternoon, Claire showed great potential at the World Orienteering Championships, coming 28th in the Middle Distance final in Vuokatti, Finland. She was running very well but lost time to navigation errors later on in her run.
At the World Championships Middle Distance Final in Koulurinne, Vuokatti, Finland today, Claire produced a good quality run marred by a few mistakes, finishing in 28th place. Her previous best of 22nd in middle distance was certainly achievable today, pre-race she wrote "have no expectations, but if I stick to [my plan] I should hopefully get top 30 regardless of pace and I should be happy with that" so she will be pleased with her result.
After a winter season plagued by injury problems Claire has once again proved she is a world class athlete who can consistently compete at the very top of the sport. Congratulations Claire!
Hollie Orr, ex Edinburgh University runner, had a very good performance too, finishing in 21st place for the top British result of the day. Tessa Hill, another Edinburgh based athlete, finished in 37th place.
Simone Niggli once again proved her dominance of Women's Orienteering by winning the Middle Distance crown to go with both the Sprint and Long titles she earned earlier in the week. We hope to see Simone at WOC 2015 in Scotland! The young Swede Tove Alexandersson was 2nd, the same as last year, and Merja Rantanen, from Finland, was 3rd. Earlier in the day Russian Leonid Novikov took the Men's title with a very consistent run, a few seconds ahead of Thierry Gueorgiou who won the Long distance title a few days ago.
Picture is a screenshot from live Swedish TV, SVT, viewed through their website.