After a rest day the World Orienteering Championships continues with middle final Friday at 12:00 CEST. Now the runners move into Campomulo, which is part of Asiago karstic highland, in the altitude of 1500-1700 meters above sea level. The landscape is characterized by many terraces divided by steeper areas. Vegetation varies from alpine pastures to open forests, mainly coniferous, and the ground surface is very rocky throughout reducing the runnability in the forest. Trenches from World War are very common in this area. The network of paths, tracks and roads is not very dense. Cross country ski tracks exist in parts of the area. Last year Leonid Novikov surprised everybody – including himself – by winning the World Champions middle distance in Vuokatti. Thierry Gueorgiou finished second after a one-minute mistake at control which he never managed to fully catch up. Sweden’s Gustav Bergman became third. Simone Niggli won Gold also on Middle after deciding a tricky middle distance for herself . She won with 27 seconds to Mari Fasting – and with nearly two minutes to silver medalist Tove Alexandersson who was in the lead at the beginning.
Like in the long distance, today there will be everybody in the Finals. But who are the favourites to take the WOC Middle title in this year’s WOC in Italy? Will the best runners do mistakes in this technical terrain?