Sandra Grosberga | Photo: Sintija Zandersone / LETA
Sandra Grosberga took the 17th place in the long distance orienteering world championship in the Czech Republic on Friday, while in the men’s competition the best of Latvia’s orienteers Uldis Upītis took the 29th place. In the women’s competition, Grosberg’s distance was covered in 29 hours and 37 seconds per hour, 12 minutes and 26 seconds behind the winner.
The winner was Tove Aleksandersone from Sweden, whose Doksi was first in all five possible individual and team distances. She already had the 15th gold medal at the world championships. Alexanderson was two minutes and 58 seconds ahead of Natalia Gemperle, a representative of the Russian Orienteering Federation (FSO), who was flying under the neutral flag, and Simon Eberzold of Switzerland by three minutes and 17 seconds. Līga Valdmane ranked 42nd among 59 athletes, 28 minutes and 50 seconds behind the winner.
In the men’s competition, Upītis finished in 29th place, 20 minutes and 41 seconds behind the winning Norwegian Kasper Harlem Foser. The second was finished by the Swiss Matthias Kiburcs, who lost three minutes and five seconds to the winner, the third was the winner’s compatriot Mangne Son, five minutes and 58 seconds behind the teammate. The second Latvian participant Artūrs Pauliņš ranked 31st in the 67 orienteering competition, losing the winner by 21 minutes and 19 seconds.
It has already been reported that on Sunday the Latvian national team took the 14th place in the sprint relay among 22 teams. The Latvian national team consisted of Irita Puķīte, Sandra Grosberga, Uldis Upītis and Andris Jubelis. On Tuesday, the highest place in the middle distance was won by Edgars Bertuks, who was the only one to reach the final, ranking 32nd.
On Thursday, the Latvian national team took the tenth place in the relay for men and the 16th place for women.
Initially, this was planned as a championship only in the forest distances, but due to the competitions that did not take place last year, sprint and sprint relay have also been added to the program. Thus, the championship started on July 3 with a sprint, which was nominated as the main competition of the season by Sandra Grosberga, the best orienteer in the Baltics, who won the all-time best result in the history of Latvian orienteering for women – tenth place.
Latvia is represented in the competition by 11 athletes: Edgars Bertuks, Artūrs Pauliņš, Mārtiņš Sirmais, Rūdolfs Zērnis, Uldis Upītis, Andris Jubelis and Sandra Grosberga, Inga Dambe, Līga Valdmane, Irita Puķīte, Elza Ķuze, but Rihards Krūmiņš and Signe reserve. It is the largest Latvian team of all time that has participated in the world championship.
The World Championships, for which 302 athletes from 40 countries have applied, took place from 3 to 9 July.
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