Saturday, July 5

Today was the long distance, which was battled out on the Partille-Gunnilse map in nearly 30C heat. The courses were tough and hilly, with a lot of running through tall grass and heather. The start window had a depth of 6 hours, meaning the first runners had already finished by the time some of the later starters had even woken up. The heat did not keep the best juniors in the world from racing at blazing speeds, as the top 5 runners were separated by less than 20 seconds. On the other hand, towards the end of the results, the spread was a lot greater, and the last runner took over 4 hours, while nearly 20 runners did not complete the course.

The best American performance was by Andy Strat, who came in 134th place with a time of just over two hours. Gabe Svobodny, who had had a solid run, was unfortunately disqualified as he failed to punch at one of the refreshment controls. On the women's side, Holly and Tori were separated by only a few minutes, as they took places 102 (Holly) and 104 (Tori.)

Andy sprinting into the finish:

Here are the results:

Men, 10.2km, 420m climb

1 Johan Runesson Sweden 1:12:22
2 Timo Sild Estonia 1:12:34
3 Matthias Kyburz Switzerland 1:12:36

134 Andrew Strat USA 2:03:23

138 Jordan Laughlin USA 2:12:04

142 Malcolm Wyatt-Mair USA 2:16:25

150 John Goodwin USA 2:38:42

Hunter Cornish did not start, resting his injured foot for the relay.

Women, 6.5km, 215m climb

1 Jenny Lönnkvist Sweden 55:12
2 Beata Falk Sweden 55:50
3 Siri Ulvestad Norway 56:25

102 Holly Kuestner USA 1:39:48
104 Tori Borish USA 1:43:22

Anna Shafer-Skelton did not start because of a flare-up of her plantar fasciitis.

Here is the men's course with Jordan Laughlin's routes:

Tomorrow is the final day of JWOC, with the highlights including the relay and the banquet.

Here are the line-ups of the US relay teams

Men's USA 1 (Team 57)

1. John Goodwin

2. Hunter Cornish

3. Andy Strat

Men's USA 2 (Team 22)

1. Jordan Laughlin

2. Gabe Svobodny

3. Malcolm Wyatt-Mair

Women's USA 1 (Team 143)

1. Holly Kuestner

2. Tori Borish

3. Anna Shafer-Skelton

A lot of activity has been going on in preparation for the second part of tomorrow's program, the banquet. A typical team bonding experience at JWOC is the creation of the "top 10 lists" of each team's favorite JWOC runners of the opposite sex. Below is an example of one of the more original top 10 lists, which have become more and more creative in their presentation in recent years: