The World Games, Kaohsiung Taiwan, 17th-19th July 2009
Orienteering is just one of 35 sports at the World Games and involves two Edinburgh based athletes, Helen Bridle (ESOC) & Scott Fraser (EUOC/INT).
The 2009 World Games comprises thirty-five sports including Orienteering which features a Sprint Race (Friday 17th July), a Middle Distance Race (Saturday 18th July) and a Mixed Relay (Sunday 19th July). Nineteen nations are taking part, including a Great Britain team containing two Edinburgh based athletes; Helen Bridle (ESOC) and Scott Fraser (EUOC & Interlopers).
Mixed Relay, Sunday 19th July
The GB running order is David Brickhill-Jones, Helen Bridle, Scott Fraser, Sarah Rollins.
First leg : Russia, Sweden, Norway with GB 6th (57 seconds behind Russia).
Second leg : Sweden, Russia, Switzerland with GB 8th (2:56 down on the leaders). Australia have moved up from 12th to 4th.
Third leg : Russia, Sweden (0:13 down), Switzerland (1:21 down) with GB 7th (3:36 behind the leaders)
Result : 1. Russia (1:55:07), 2. Finland (+1:30), 3. Norway (+1:41), 4. Australia (+2:03), 5. Denmark (+4:08), 6. Latvia (+4:11), 7. Switzerland (+4:42), 8. Sweden (+5:00), 9. Czech Republic (+7:23).
Great Britain finished in 7th place (4 mins 26 secs. behind the winners and ahead of Sweden & Switzerland) but were disqualified due to one of the athletes not wearing their tracking device as required by the competition rules. Sarah Rollins had entered the changeover area from an entry point on the opposite side to the one close to the GPS-unit collection point and both she and the team management failed to pick up the mistake. Sarah later explained that there was no pre-start check and that she had entered the start-box from shade where she had been preparing for her run; the conditions for all races in Taiwan were extreme heat and humidity.
See the bottom of this post for links to British Orienteering reports on all three races, full results including maps & routes and further details on the World Games.
Middle Distance Race, Saturday 18th July
The Women’s race was won by Johanna Allston (Australia) with yesterday’s Sprint winner, Minna Kauppi, second. Sarah Rollins (GBR) was 9th and Helen Bridle 17th.
The Men’s race was won by Daniel Hubmann (Switzerland) with Scott Fraser 12th and David Brickhill-Jones (GBR) 15th.
Sprint Race, Friday 17th July
Helen finished 9th in a race won by Finland’s Minna Kauppi with Sarah Rollins (GBR) 6th. In the Men’s race Scott Fraser was 16th and David Brickhill-Jones (GBR) 25th.
Sarah and Helen were pleased with their top ten finishes but disappointed to have made small mistakes in a race where seconds separated the leading runners. The challenging park-style race had significant sections of fast running but also tricky route choices involving impassable features.
British Orienteering reports || Sprint : Middle : Mixed Relay
Live results including routegadget.
Further details || World Games