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The first final – the short-course event – took place on Saturday at the European Orienteering Championships in Mol, Hungary. Three of the ten Estonian competitors made it to the final: woman Evely Kaasiku and men brothers Timo and Lauri Sild.
The best 60 players were selected from 156 men and 117 women in Friday’s qualifying rounds to earn a starting spot in Saturday’s finals.
The finals are mostly held on very steep, rocky slopes with a height difference of 150 meters. The track master planned the women’s track to be 4.5 kilometers long with a slope of 340 meters, while the corresponding parameters for the men’s track are 5.1 kilometers and 390 meters.
The steep hillside was densely covered with rock walls and stones of varying sizes, and most of the levels were located in a complex rock maze. In addition to the difficult movements and steep slopes, the 35-degree heat also made the competition extremely difficult. The winning times expected by the track and field masters – 36 minutes for women and 35 minutes for men – were far from reality. Defending champion Simona Ebersold (Switzerland) won the women’s gold medal with a time of 40.51, and Eric Langdahl Brevik (Norway) won the men’s gold medal with a time of 42.34.
Aebersold finished the course as one of the few without making major mistakes and took over the course at the start. In the end, she finished 2.19 ahead of compatriot Natalia Gemperle, who won the silver medal, and 3.17 ahead of Andrine Benjaminsen, who won the bronze medal. World No. 1 and favorite Tove Alexandersson of Sweden had already made a mistake of more than three minutes in the third stage, ranking only 47th, but managed to move up to fourth place at the finish. However, he missed the medal by more than a minute.
Evely Kaasiku, who won silver in the distance in her home country of Lääne-Virumaa two years ago, had a somewhat uncertain start and lost some time due to some road choices, but managed to avoid major mistakes throughout the race and ultimately finished 17th, 8.33 behind the winner.
In the men’s competition, the favorites also fell victim to errors such as Lagu. As many as 15 of the 60 starters did not get a result. Many strong athletes stopped playing after an unsuccessful start, as they would rather save more energy for the long and more difficult normal schedule that will be played on Sunday.
European champion Eirik Langedal Breivik, 25, of Norway, whose best result so far on the MK stage is 10th, perfectly executed the third control point before the race to avoid the mistakes that would have decided the outcome of the course. Second place went to Kasper Harlem Fosser, 24 seconds behind his compatriot. Defending champion Albin Riedfeldt of Sweden (+1.05) took third place.
Lauri Sild was in 32nd place (+8.39) and Timo Sild in 35th place (+9.34). After the start of the race, both were in a losing position – in the first points, they were 2 and 1 minute behind the best team respectively. Lauri Sild moved up further in the rankings, while Timo Sild made two more big mistakes on the track, which allowed him to move up from 46th to over 35th place at the first checkpoint.
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