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Here is how Áron Less, the Secretary General of WOC2009 saw the incident:

"I was warned quite early by one of the refreshment guards by phone, that a big accident happened to the Swedish runner on the course. He lost consciousness and needs medical treatment asap. In 5 minutes, I was on site with an ambulance car. Being the first car there was quite a special situation. The situation was much better, than expected - Johansson did not lose his consciousness, but had big pain in his leg. Thierry Gueorgiou was holding his hand strongly and they all were quite relieved, when we arrived. Johansson managed to talk to us and in under 10 minutes, he was inside the ambulance car. The strange thing is, that we had 3 other accidents happening at the same time, but fortunately none of them was like this. When I got back to the finish (~ 1 km), my humanic side insisted, that their is no possibility to have the race results as they are. In the meantime I knew, that the situation is not that easy.

The Organising Committee immediately started talks about what to do with the situation. The IOF Sports Director came to us immediately, telling that the IOF's view is that this is a very sad situation, but a result is a result, and it should be kept. It was quite clear, that we only have two very simple options:
1. Cancel the results, as it was 'unfair' in a way (based on IOF Foot-O Competition Rules 26.13.).
2. Keep the results as they are and give recognition to the teams involved.
We knew, that whichever decision we take, there will be a lot of people, who are clearly against the decision.

First, we asked the three teams' officials involved in the rescuing mission, but they didn't give any clear answer. Then we asked the three teams, who eventually got onto the podium because of the situation. Two of these teams were hesitant about what to do (they wanted to talk to their runners first), the third one was clearly in favour of keeping the results (his competitors were not happy of the medal they earned this way, though). So we got no clear input from the teams.

As time was passing quite fast, and the Organising Committee itself was divided in the question, we decided to have a vote. The vote resulted in a tie, and thus the Chairman's vote was decisive - and it was to keep the results as they are. I informed all the teams involved about the decision, and we agreed with those, who happened to be on the podium, that they will not cheer, not stand up on the podium and will receive their medals in their hands. At that time, they seemed to have all agreed on the situation. Two of the three teams involved in the rescue mission were a bit upset though, when they heard about the decision. They wanted to hand in a protest (referring to section 26.13. in the IOF Competition Rules), but after some talks, they decided not to hand in the protest.

Once again, I must say, that it was a very strange situation, where any solution would be far from ideal. We tried to follow the rules as much as possible, but still the communication now is more negative, than it was in the arena. A lot of team leaders came over to me (Sweden included), that we made the right decision. Cruel as it is, but I'm quite convinced, that had it been the other way round, we would have received much more criticism overall. We, the WOC2009 Organising Committee still think, that this decision - although still not a good solution - was better than the other one."

After such a great event, everyone tries to measure achievements. We made two statistics (one about medals, one about best six places), but the conclusion was all the same: Switzerland is ahead of the world. They were the only nation with more than one gold medal; they collected the highest number of each type of medals; and they collected more than one third of all medals. Their dominance is more impressive if we count the podium places.

The most effective runner of WOC was Daniel Hubmann, collecting a medal in each discipline (two golds, one silver, one bronze). The best female was Marianne Andersen with one gold and two silver, but she still doesn't have any individual gold. Simone Niggli collected one gold (the 17th one in WOC history) and two bronze all in individual. Helena Jansson, Andrey Khramov, Thierry Gueorgiou, Matthias Merz and Minna Kauppi finished with more than one medal. In men's category in all individual discipline the reigning world champion saved the title, while in women not any of them.

Medals

Podium places (7-5-4-3-2-1 points)

After the prizegiving ceremony Zsolt Gerzsényi, president of organizing committee WOC 2009 handed over the flag of IOF to the representatives of WOC 2010 in Trondheim, Norway. Finally Åke Jacobson, the president of IOF thanked the well performed event to the organizers and officially closed 26th World Orienteering Championships and 6th World Trail Orienteering Championships.

Daniel Hubmann replayed his last year performance in long distance final: he didn't give a chance to any opponent. Thierry Gueorgiou was the fastest one of the others, but he was 1:56 behind the Swiss. Third place went to Mikhail Mamleev of Italy, who was caught by Hubmann, so his gap was already 4:09. In fourth position we can find Mats Haldin, fifth place goes to Dmitriy Tsvetkov, and Emil Wingstedt became sixth one.

The women's competition brought Simone Niggli's great victory: she was beating the second one with almost two minutes. She had a clear run from the beginning, caught Minna Kauppi (who finally got bronze) and had the highest speed of all. Last starter, Marianne Andersen became the second, having 19 seconds better time than Kauppi. Fourth place went to title holder Dana Brozkova who caught Anne-Margrethe Hausken (finally in sixth position), same like last year. Fifth became Linnea Gustafsson, who was leading for a long time before the best ones arrived.

At 11:00 left the start Inga Kazlauskaite, the first runner of women's startlist which will last until 12:28. Course is 11.790 m / 490 m / 27 cp., expected winning time 75 minutes, so we will know who is the new world champion approximately at quarter to two. Last year Dana Brozková, Marianne Andersen, Annika Billstam, Anne-Margrethe Hausken, Signe Soes, Sofie Johansson was called to podium.

Last part of startlist:
85 Jansson Helena SWE 12:08
86 Rantanen Merja FIN 12:10
87 Jureníková Eva CZE 12:12
88 Hausken Anne-Margrethe NOR 12:14
89 Brozková Dana CZE 12:16
90 Soes Signe DEN 12:18
91 Fincke Anni-Maija FIN 12:20
92 Novikova Julia RUS 12:22
93 Kauppi Minna FIN 12:24
94 Niggli Simone SUI 12:26
95 Andersen Marianne NOR 12:28

Men will begin at 12:01, first runner is Mats Haldin, while the last one will start at 13:29. Course is 17.550 m / 750 m / 33 cp., expected winning time is  95 minutes. A little after three o'clock the new world champion will be known. Last year Daniel Hubmann, Anders Nordberg, Francois Gonon, Andrey Khramov, Matthias Merz, Marian Davidik was the best six.

Last starters:
32 Nordberg Anders NOR 13:03
33 Lauenstein Marc SUI 13:05
34 Khramov Andrey RUS 13:07
35 Mamleev Mikhail ITA 13:09
36 Öberg Peter SWE 13:11
37 Hubmann Daniel SUI 13:13
38 Johansson Martin SWE 13:15
39 Kovács Ádám HUN 13:17
40 Merz Matthias SUI 13:19
41 Gonon Francois FRA 13:21
42 Föhr Tero FIN 13:23
43 Gristwood Graham GBR 13:25
44 Rollier Baptiste SUI 13:27
45 Gueorgiou Thierry FRA 13:29

Course of both categories contain butterfly combination and spectators' control in the arena.

Weather really changed compared to previous days: it's raining since yesterday afternoon, the sky is cloudy, and temperature went down to 18-20 degrees. The rain if forecasted to stop soon. Only lucky thing is that there is no wind.

In the men's relay on third leg, Thierry Gueorgiou, Anders Nordberg and Martin Johansson were running together in leading position, when the Swedish guy got a serious injury: he got a stick in his leg 12 cms deep. His opponents stopped to help him, Thierry was staying with Johansson and pushing his shirt to the wound to stop bleeding, while Nordberg ran to the finish area to bring some help. Michal Smola from the Czech Republic was the next runner passing through the scene, and he stopped also to help him. Martin Johansson was taken to the hospital and he seems to be recovered soon. After the incident the three sportsmen jogged the course and finally they finished in 25-27th position.

The president of the IOF, Åke Jacobson, expressed gratitude to the three sportsmen before the prizegiving ceremony: "What you did today is a great example of extreme sportsmanship and fair play. You are an inspiration for all of us!"

The last leg was a hectical one: big stars of orienteering were fighting face to face, and who made less mistake could finally celebrate. Minna Kauppi started almost one minute ahead of Simone Niggli, but they were soon together, meanwhile Helena Jansson ran in a really high speed, and started to narrow the gap. Marianne Andersen was the fastest of all, so it looked like they will all meet. The Swiss and the Finnish made a mistake, so it really happened, and more: Simone Niggli lost more time, and she had to follow the others. That time Helena Jansson was in first position, but after her mistake Marianne Andersen took the lead. On spectators' control Norway was half a minute in front of Sweden, and these two left the others behind (Finland 2 minutes, Switzerland ans Czech Republic 3 minutes, Russia 7 minutes behind the leader). Marianne Andersen was unsure for some seconds, so Helena Jansson could get closer but not enough close to overtake her, so there were no change in the best six positions until the finish line.