MOC Day 3 – Finale! Birgu – Città Vittoriosa

18 Mar 2019 - News


As day broke, all signs were pointing to another spectacular day of Orienteering on the island of Malta. The Finish Arena had moved 200m towards the sea from yesterday’s race and the view had become even better! Starting through an archway with a fine view of the marina, the sun shone across the blue sky. Runners were reaching for the suntan lotion and preparing to sweat!

On Women’s Elite, Ann Dvoryanskaya RUS started well and led the first 4 controls. However, Natalia Gemperle RUS was never far behind and to the 5th control she was 6 seconds faster and took the lead. From here to the finish she gradually extended this to win by 41 seconds. Lizzie InghamNZL took the bronze almost a minute behind Anna, showing us all that the Russian girls really were the stars of this testing Maltese terrain.

It was to be Riccardo Scalet ITA’s race as he owned it from start to finish. He was the fastest to the first control by one second and despite Yannick Michiels drawing level with him at the 4th control, he never looked back from there to the finish. By the time he reached the last control he was 23 seconds clear of Chris Smithard GBR in second. It would be a tie for third as the Belgium Bullet, Yannick Michiels – Fanpage and Peter HodkinsonGBR were 10 seconds behind Chris.

 
Overall however the victory and €750 prize-money would be Yannick’s as Riccardo had mispunched the previous day. Chris Smithard GBR was second overall and the ever strong Øystein Kvaal Østerbø NOR who was present in 2005 at the first MOC, picked up the €250 prize cheques for third.
Today’s race was a World Ranking Event. Yannick is currently ranked 3rd in the World for Sprint Orienteering. Riccardo is 36th, Oystein is 31st, Chris is 26th.
Of the Women, Natalia is 5th, Anna is 52nd and @Aleksandra Hornik POL who took third place Overall in the Women is 20th.

The Overall MOC Winners also won the latest Mila Vega II Headtorches. Mila Design & Tillverkning AB CEO Björn Reger was present as a competitor and official sponsor to make the presentations.

Overall Results
6 Classes managed to have overall winners who did not win Day 1. On W21, Natalia Gemperle succeeded in overhaulling fellow Russian Anna Dvorianskaia to win by 28 seconds overall. On W70 Turid Nyström NOR overtook Miriam Rosen GBR to secure overall victory by 12 seconds and on W60 Carol Edwards GBR won overall by 36 seconds ahead of Kane Andersson SWE.
For the Men, Mark Aegler SUI pushed Dirk Goossens BEL off the top spot on M50 by 35 seconds and on M70, Latvian Ilmars Limbens pushed Peter Martin GBR from Gold by 15 seconds. Finally, M75 saw the closest margin with 5 seconds separating Magnus Landstad DEN from yesterday’s winner Göran Andersson SWE.

 

W10 Elsa TERRY RSA
W16 Sofia FARENFIELD LAT
W20 Tuva-Cajsa SPIK SWE
W21 Natalia GEMPERLE RUS
W40 Renata HAVRDOVA CZE
W50 Linda VERBRAKEN BEL
W60 Carol EDWARDS GBR
W65 Unni STRAND KARLSEN NOR
W70 Turid NYSTRÖM NOR
W75 Katharina Mo BERGE NOR
W80 Rosa Birgitta MÄGI SWE

M10 Deniz BASOL TUR
M12 Alex FARENFIELD LAT
M16 Valdemar GRAAE DEN
M20 Jakub CHUPEK SVK
M21 Yannick MICHIELS BEL
M40 Simo MARTOMAA FIN
M50 Mark AEGLER SUI
M60 Graham NILSEN GBR
M65 Alun JONES GBR
M70 Ilmars LIMBENS LAT
M75 Magnus LANDSTAD NOR
M80 Lars CEDERUS SWE

Open 1 Magnus CLAESON SWE
Open 2 Martin FARENFIELD LAT
Open 3 Pui Ling LI HKG