Sylvester WRE: Airila shows how it's done

Hannu Airila won the last WRE of the year today in Helchteren. With fast and secure orienteering he was simply too good for the rest of the field. A visibly happy Airila commented: "I had a good race. No mistakes. I hesitated to control 7 because I didn't see the green. Then I spotted a control in the distance and it was mine. I ran sub 5'00 splits on all legs except one (19 - red)."

The current leader in the five-day ranking Tomas Hendrickx was the best of the rest. He had a gap of 2 minutes in front of him. This performance widens the gap in the overall ranking and things are looking good for the youngest of the Hendrickx brothers. Thomas van der Kleij was quite pleased with race in third  position. No big mistakes, some time loss at the end. He decided to keep his speed relatively low in the difficult area starting at control 6. A choice that payed off, that's for sure, as a lot of other runners lost minutes in the white area.

In the women's class Miek Fabré won her fourth stage and is sure of the overall victory. She was also happy with her performance today and said she had a good feeling as she caught up the ladies starting before her. Some two minutes behind was Mélanie D'Harreville. The French will have WOC selection races in Sweden on a WRE. It's important for them to gather World Ranking points in order to have a good starting position there. Sophie Tritschler, first out in the forest today, was third a further 20 seconds behind. She will take the second place overall, that's for sure.

Results
Splits
Overall
Map H21 (Desmond Franssen)
Map D21 (Anna Serrallonga)

H21 Technical zone (click for full map)

The fifth stage, tomorrow in The Netherlands will bring yet another terrain type. Large sandy areas and the occasional white/green patch of forest will bring another day of fast orienteering to decide this five day event.