The TempO competition today was won convincingly by the 28-year-old Swedish trail orienteer Marit Wiksell, who ended with a lead of 53 seconds over the silver medallist, Portuguese Ines Domingues. The bronze medal went to the very consistent Finn Antti Rusanen. Both Finland and the Czech Republic had two competitors in the top six.
Today there have been two competitions: first a TempO Qualification in two heats, with the first 18 from each heat going through to the final, and in the afternoon the final, where the last TempO station is in effect a spectator station with the highest scoring in the qualifications coming there last. So the final always builds up to an exciting climax.
Life can be cruel: last year’s TempO World Champion, Petteri Hakala from Finland, this year failed to qualify for the final by just 1.5 seconds! On the other side of the coin, mention should be made of the Biering family from Denmark, where mother, daughter and son all qualified for the final; having three in the final is in itself a record for Denmark!
Pinja Mäkinen, who won gold medals in both the PreO and Relay, today finished tenth.
Top TempO results
- Marit Wiksell SWE 294 seconds
- Ines Domingues POR 347
- Antti Rusanen FIN 368
- Juha Hiirsalmi FIN 370.5
- Pavel Ptacek CZE 380
- Tomas Lestinsky CZE 389