Evely Kaasiku seventh in world orienteering champs in Finland
Evely Kaasiku placed seventh in the World Orienteering Championships middle-distance finals in Kuopio, Finland, on Wednesday.
This year's World Championships are being held around the well-known Tahko ski resort in Kuopio, in the center of Finland, and teams from 45 countries are competing.
Three medal events are taking place: The middle distance on Wednesday, long distance on Thursday, and the relay on Saturday.
The championships started on Tuesday with middle-distance qualifiers, across three heats each for both men and women. The top 15 from each advanced to today's finals.
Kaasiku and Lauri Sild in the men's event placed second in their heats, while Timo Sild came third.
Marianne Haug and Margret Zimmermann also secured spots in the final by placing 14th in the women's heats.
On the day, Kaasiku gave everything she had on the finishing straight of the 5km to cross the line in 37:30 (+4:13), tying for seventh place with Finnish athlete Marika Teini.
This marks her best world championships placing to date, and she also matched the best-ever Estonian women's result, tied with Külli Kaljusä's seventh place in the long distance back in 1999.
Still, she was outside the medals this time.
"The 13 seconds that kept me off the podium will gnaw at me – I could've found them in several spots," said Kaasiku. "Maybe a couple of route choices went poorly, but my speed was good and I braked boldly where I had to," Kaasiku said.
"The medal was a bit out of reach. I'm not satisfied with finishing seventh just yet, but let this minor disappointment be fuel for tomorrow's long distance. My speed is really good. With a smooth run and correct route choices from start to finish, anything is possible on the long course as well—as proven by my fifth place at last year's European Championships," she added.
Zimmermann finished with a time of 51:05 and placed 44th, while Marianne Haug was half a minute slower in 45th place.
The win went to legendary Tove Alexandersson with a time of 33:17, followed by Sanna Fast (+1:02) and Hanna Lundberg (+2:26), all of them Swedish nationals.
In the men's, Sild finished 4 minutes and 58 seconds behind the winner. His older brother Timo, who demonstrated good speed in the qualifiers, opted not to start in the final, choosing instead to focus on the other distances at the World Championships.
The long distance event takes place on Thursday.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte
