Exciting Finnish for Jukola 2009

 FINLAND

It all came down to the last leg this year at Jukola. Former two time sprint World Champion Emil Wingstedt (SWE/Halden SK) set out on leg 7 in first place with a lead of about 3 minutes, only to be chased down part way through the course by a formidable pack consisting of two current World Champions, Thierry Gueorgiou (FRA/Kalevan Rasti) and Daniel Hubmann (SUI/Kristiansand OK). Hubmann eventually took control of the lead after taking a better route choice than Gueorgiou on a leg near to the finish. He continued to extend this lead once in front and went on to finish in first place for his club Kristiansand OK.

Chris Forne currently New Zealand's second best ranked Orienteer ran the 3rd leg for his Wing OK Norwegian club which finished strongly in 19th place 28 minutes behind the winners. Ross Morrison's OK Pan Århus  Danish club finished up in 121th place with Morrison running the first leg and Greg Flynn running the last leg. Team OK Ravinen 3, containing New Zealander's Keith Agmen and Todd Oates came 389th.

Around 1450 seven person teams took part this year in the 61st edition of Jukola (Not 50th as reported earlier). Once again, the mass start of 1450 runners this year was an impressive spectacle of which pictures and full results can be found at: http://www.jukola2009.net/

Results 61st Jukola relay
1. Kristiansand OK NOR 8:02:43
2. Kalevan Rasti FIN +0.23
3. Halden SK NOR +3:04