The heat in Hungary – over 30 degrees – combined with hilly and often diffuse terrain made for a very hard Long Distance final, the last race in WMOC. The most convincing result was that of the Norwegian Øystein Kvaal Østerbø, who won M40 by more than 10 minutes.
Additional to those in classes W90, W95 and M95 where there was only one competitor, Østerbø was one of four competitors finishing the event with three gold medals. The other three are Jane Smutna, Czech Republic in W55, Jurate Uleviciene, Lithuania in W70 and Brigitte Schmiedeberg, Germany in W85. Nine participants won two gold medals.
M&W40 podium: from l. Michael Sørensen DEN & Reda Velde LTU; Pernille Sommer DEN & Øystein Kvaal Østerbø NOR; Jose Manuel Crespo Garcia ESP & Anastasia Routsi FIN Photos: WMOC
In this race there was a joint gold-medal award; in M60 Per Backlund, Sweden and Jozef Pollák, Slovakia finished with the same elapsed time, and third-placed Zdenek Zuzanek, Czech Republic was only 37 seconds slower. M70 Keld Johnsen, Denmark had the narrowest win, by just 9 seconds, and home athlete Martin Hajdu won M50 by 14 seconds. Because of the terrain and weather conditions, times in general were very spread out.
M&W60 podium: from l. Jannike Wahlberg SWE; Jozef Pollak SVK, Katalin Karman HUN & Per Backlund SWE; Olena Rudakova UKR & Zdenek Zuzanek CZE
As in the Middle final, M75 was dominated by Finnish athletes, who here took the first six places plus eighth. Overall, gold medals went to athletes from 14 nations – 10 different nations in both the men’s and the women’s 13 classes.
Cover picture: M&W75 podium: from l. Timo Peltola FIN & Sharon Crawford USA; Jorma Hyyrylainen FIN & Inge Jørgensen DEN; Kari Timenes Laugen NOR & Paavo Inkinen FIN
WMOC 2021 Long Distance Champions
W35 Katarina Lamiova SVK
W40 Pernille Sommer DEN
W45 Merike Vanjuk EST
W50 Anna Gornicka Antonowicz POL
W55 Jana Smutna CZE
W60 Katalin Karman HUN
W65 Lotta Linsefors SWE
W70 Jurate Uleviciene LTU
W75 Inge Jørgensen DEN
W80 Elli Pelkonen FIN
W85 Brigitte Schmiedeberg GER
W90 Sole Nieminen FIN
W95 Lena Nordahl SWE
M35 Yury Masnyy RUS
M40 Øystein Kvaal Østerbø NOR
M45 Marek Prasil CZE
M50 Martin Hajdu HUN
M55 Ferri Gassner AUT
M60 Per Backlund SWE & Jozef Pollák SVK
M65 Jorma Nissila FIN
M70 Keld Johnsen DEN
M75 Jorma Hyyrylainen FIN
M80 Roland Karlsson SWE
M85 Rune Carlsson SWE
M90 John Larsson SWE
M95 Adolf Kempf SUI