Edgars Bertuks | Photo: “aluksniesiem.lv”
On Thursday, in the World Orienteering Championships in the Czech Republic, the Latvian national team took the tenth place in the relay for men and the 16th place for women. For men, in the first stage, Artūrs Pauliņš achieved the tenth best result, two minutes and seven seconds behind the leaders.
Edgars Bertuks showed the 11th best result in the second stage, six minutes and 34 seconds behind the owner in the owner’s stage. Rūdolfs Zērnis reached the tenth best time in the last stage, the leader of the stage lost five minutes and 34 seconds. The Latvian national team of Sweden was 11 minutes and 16 seconds behind the world champion, taking the tenth place.
Albin Ridefelt, William Lind and Gustav Bergman became world champions in the Swedish national team. Sweden was 51 seconds ahead of neighboring Norwegians Geute Steivers, Kasper Harlem Foser and Eskil Kinneberg, and two minutes ahead of Switzerland, which included Martin Hubman, Florian Howald and Matthias Kiburcs.
Līga Valdmane completed the first stage nine minutes and two seconds behind the leader Switzerland, which ranked Latvia 19th among the national teams of 24 countries. Inga Dambe showed the 16th best time in her stage, being 11 minutes and four seconds longer than the best time in the second stage. Sandra Grosberga reached the 14th best time in the period, nine minutes and five seconds behind the fastest athlete.
In total, it gave 16th place 27 minutes and 29 seconds behind the Swedish champions, which included Lisa Risby, Sarah Hagström and Tove Alexanderson. Sweden was two minutes and 33 seconds ahead of Switzerland, which featured Elena Rosa, Sabine Hausvirta and Simon Eberzold, and seven minutes and one second ahead of Norway, which featured Maria Ulausen, Kamilla Steivere and Andrine Benjaminsen.
It has already been reported that on Sunday the Latvian national team took the 14th place in the sprint relay among 22 teams. In the relay, two ladies and the same men started in the same team. 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.
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. Long distance competitions are scheduled for Friday. The World Championships, for which 302 athletes from 40 countries have applied, will take place until July 9.
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