Norway emerges victorious in WUC Ski Orienteering Sprint Relay

TARTU, ESTONIA – The sprint relay event on day three of the FISU World University Ski Orienteering Championships brought a competitive tension amongst the student-athletes as the world team titles lied in the balance at the country’s southern ski competition venue of Haanja on Thursday. The second day of competition saw pairings of one man and woman team up together to compete for the coveted medals.

The first team across the finish line for the sprint relay was Norway as Jørgen Haugen Madslien and Anna Ulvensøen. The two students from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology finished with a time of in 41:56. Silver and bronze medals went to Russian teams, as the pairing of Marina Viatkina from Siberian Federal University and Vladislav Kiselev from Chaijkovskij State Institute of Physical Training finished second in 42:32. The Russian duo of Mariia Petrushko (Saint-Petersburg State University of Technology and Design and Sergei Gorlanov (Pacific State University) finished just eight seconds behind their compatriots to take third place in 43:31.

The rest of the official results were made up by Norway in fourth, Sweden in fifth, Czech Republic in sixth, Finland in both seventh and eighth, Estonia in ninth and Czech Republic in tenth.

In an interview, the Russian coach Alexander Bliznevskiy said the event in Estonia was first-rate. “Estonia has a long history in orienteering, both how to organize events and also good athletes,” Mr. Bliznevskiy said. “Also, Tartu is very famous famous student city so it is really nice place to have the race – and the weather is perfect with ideal snow conditions.”

While this is just the second edition of Ski Orienteering in the FISU World University Championship programme, the sport has already been added to the events at the 2019 Winter Universiade in Krasnoyarsk, Russia.

“In Russia we also have big and long traditions in orienteering, Mr. Bliznevskiy added. “Next year, we are hosting Ski Orienteering in the Winter Universiade. Our athletes are preparing for this and this is a very good place and ideal race for this preparation. This competition is one of our steps for being in best form next year.”