Signe Søes: "I made a little mistake at the second last, but otherwise OK. I could have run faster, but I had to think of final."

Hanny Allston: "I am overall happy with my run, looking forward to a challenging final. I had a clean run."

Graham Gistwood: "I made two mistakes alltogether over two minutes, so I am in a better position than I expected."

Matthias Merz: "It was quite good, but in the second part I made two mistakes more than one minute."

Helena Jansson: "It was a very good course with a lot of different characters, some controls were in the green, some in the open area, I really liked. I didn't push hard, because I will have five more runs this week."

Simone Niggli: "Physically I feel strong, but I made a few mistakes today. I missed the first control, I was close, but I didn't see the control. Well, today I didn't see the controls, I always went upper and downer. I will have to concentrate better in final."

Daniel Hubmann: "I had problems with first control, maybe almost one minute, it was a kind of wake-up call, and after that it was pretty good."

Ádám Kovács: "I had a pretty good competition, I had a small mistake in the green, aroud half a minute. I felt really good."

Favorites were confident in long distance qualification while several not well-known runners qualified for final. In women's heat 1 Minna Kauppi's victory was not a surprise, but the gap between her and the others (Signe Søes and Eva Jureníkova two and a half minutes behind). 4. place for Esther Gil from Spain, which was really not expected. In heat 2 Simone Niggli collected second first place within 24 hours, this time beating Anni-Maija Fincke and Anne-Margrethe Hausken (didn't start in middle distance), Italian and Chinese runners both got into final. In heat 3 Marianne Andersen also doubled victory, second place for Yulia Novikova, third for Dana Brožková. China qualified one more runner, and we could see good performance from the Baltic ladies.

In men's heat 1 Graham Gristwood overtook the Swiss long distance world champions: Daniel Hubmann and Matthias Merz. Carl Waaler Kaas of Norway failed, Mats Haldni was close to the edge. Polish Wojciech Kowalski and Italian Klaus Schgaguler surprised everyone with 11th and 12th position. In heat 2 Baptiste Rollier, Farncoise Gonon, Martin Johansson had three best times, Rasmus Søes couldn't qualify. In heat 3 Thierry Gueorgiou had an easy victory followed by Tero Föhr and Kovács Ádám, the best Hungarian.

At 9:00 a.m. started the second competition of WOC2009, the long qualification. Finish area is the same like yesterday, the start is right here and courses will run through finish area, so it will have to be a spectacular race. The weather is sunny, no clouds, temperature is going to be 25-30 degrees during the day. Data courses: 10.430-10.500 m / 410-430 m / 21-22 cp. for men (58 minutes expected winning time) and 6.590-6.810 m / 270-290 m / 15 cp. for women (43 minutes EWT). Same like yesterday both categories are subdivided into three heats and the 15 of each heat will qualify for the final, last competition of WOC2009 on Sunday.

Some interesting fight from the startlists: Kovács Ádám - Andrey Khramov, Tero Föhr - Martin Johansson, Mikhail Mamleev - Zinca Ionut, Anne-Margrethe Hausken - Yulia Novikova, Marianne Andersen - Helena Jansson - Signe Søes, starting at the same time. Last runners start at 10:14, so we will have the list of the athletes qualified for final around half past eleven.

Today morning with the middle distance qualification started the competitions of WOC2009. Before the Opening Ceremony (Tuesday, 17:30) middle and long qualification takes place, both in Bükkszentkereszt. The terrain is an easily runable beech forest, with steep climbs and rock forms. The courses didn't contain route choices, athletes had to run the straight way to control points. There were some interesting meetings in startlists: Jarkko Huovila and Emil Wingstedt, Radka Brožková and Merja Rantanen, Simone Niggli and Signe Søes, Mikhail Mamleev and Valentin Novikov started at the same time, but the most interesting one was that Pavlina and Viktoria Brautigam - mother and daughter - started together.

First runner in the finish was Danien Renard for men and Jenny Lönnkvist for women, they both had hopeful time. In men's heat 3 Holger Hott (former world champion) and Daniel Hubmann decreased best time, so they were close to 27 minutes.

In women's competiton Yulia Novikova, Vroni König-Salmi and Lea Mueller was in best position. Another Swiss runner ran into finish with best time: Matthias Mueller. In men's heat 2 Davis Andersson was in the lead for a long time, until Russian Aleksey Bortnik (never qualified for WOC final) overtook him.

At women Minna Kauppi arrived, but couldn't overtake Lea Mueller; meanwhile Simone Niggli had a great run: she was beating the others with more than two minutes. There were some changes at men too: Valentin Novikov ran better than Hubmann, in heat 1 Pavlo Ushkvarok arrived with new best time. The women's competition was close to end, one thing to mention: Helena Jansson finished on 2nd place. In men's competiton last changes: Matthias Merz finally won heat 2; Ionut Zinca, Tero Föhr and Thierry Gueorgiou all finished in best three position.

Comments:

Lea Mueller: "I was close to perfect competition, I am pretty happy."

Minna Kauppi: "I expected to be 2 minutes behind the leader, so I am satisfied with the gap. In the final I will win!"

Simone Niggli: "It was a tricky and tough course, but I had a clear run. Kauppi is number one favorite in final, but I will be  there too."

Thierry Gueorgiou: "My only goal was not to make a mistake, and I did it. I saved energy for the final."

Matthias Merz: "There were some tricky control points, where I had to slow down not to make a mistake, and I managed it."

The qualification for middle final took place without big surprises, favourites reached best positions without effort. In the comments courses were called tricky, physically quite tough, but very fast. In women's heat 1 Simone Niggle had a clean victory (1:44 before Helena Jansson and 2:11 before Merja Rantanen). In heat 2 Marianne Andersen of Norway had a lead over 1 minute in front of Dana Brožková and Vroni König-Salmi. Heat 3 was won by anothes Swiss woman, Lea Mueller ahead of Minna Kauppi and Dana Brožková. Men's heat 1 showed a surprising first place of Pavlo Ushvarok from Ukraine, beating Matthias Mueller and Dmitry Mihalkin from Belarus (another surprise). Best time in heat 2 by Matthias Merz, followed by Tero Föhr and Ionut Zinca. In heat 3 Valentin Novikov was beating Daniel Hubmann, third place for Thierry Gueorgiou.

Detailed report you can read today afternoon.

You can see an updated list in the embargoed and training areas section.