Luder triple world champion - historic victory for Gueorgiou

In Trin in the Swiss Alps Simone Luder (Sui) picked up her third gold medal of the OL-WM 2003. After her followed Hanne Staff (Nor) and Heli Jukkola (Fin). In the men’s race there was a superior victory by the third over the sprint distance, Thierry Gueorgiou. This was only the second medal of a World Orienteering Championship ever for France. Second and third are the Norwegians Björnar Valstad und Oystein Kristiansen, respectively.

The middle-distance event took again place under scorching heat as the sprint and the long-distance race – and again, the winner is Simone Luder. Almost everything was different today than at the sprint or the long-distance race: An extremely technical, very detailed terrain that has not been mapped for orienteering before coerced the athletes to continuous and precise map reading. Therefore it was described as “Scandinavian” in advance. In fact, Norway conquered the first medals here at this world championship. There were actually three of them, and also Finland made one thanks to the runner Heli Jukkola (3rd) into the top three at this WM. The orienteering superpower Sweden however did not get any medals today.

Luder: three world-championship titles in three different terrain types

World champion Thierry Gueorgiou might be the first orienteering world champion from France; his triumph however is not surprising. Since this spring he has won every race in Switzerland that he entered, including the Swiss middle-distance championship. Simone Luder showed again a demonstration of her steadiness, versatility and ability to concentrate. Within four days now she has become a triple world champion: First in the sprint in the previously known urban area of Rapperswil, then over the long distance in typical continental terrain with many trails on the Eschenberg near Winterthur. Now, the also successfully repelled all attacks in an area where success could only be achieved by means of subtle map reading. «I have apparently proved now that I can achieve my results not only with my legs.», says the world champion in allusion to the press comments concerning the long distance. Actually she has already proved that two years ago when she won the long-distance world-champion title in Finland.

Women
1. LUDER Simone                   		SUI     32:40 
2. STAFF Hanne                    		NOR     32:57   +   0:17
3. JUKKOLA Heli                   		FIN     33:32   +   0:52
4. JOHANSSON Jenny               		SWE    	35:08   +   2:28
5. INGVALDSEN Elisabeth          		NOR     36:16   +   3:36
6. GRANSTEDT Anette               		SWE     36:41   +   4:01


Men 
1. GUEORGIOU Thierry             		 FRA    30:08 
2. VALSTAD Björnar                		 NOR    32:45   +   2:37
3. KRISTIANSEN Öystein           		 NOR    33:08   +   3:00
4. IKONEN Pasi                    		 FIN    33:18   +   3:10
5. ROSTRUP Jörgen              		         NOR    33:37   +   3:29
6. DAVIDIK Marian                		 SVK    33:41   +   3:33

Posted: 2003-08-08 18:34:34