Aebersold wins first World Championship title: perfect start to OL World Championships for Switzerland

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Simona Aebersold (25) ensures a perfect Swiss start to the World Orienteering Championships in Flims Laax. The born Berner wins gold in the long distance and thus her first world title.

She has already been second and third at world championships four times. In the first race of the title fights in Graubünden, the 25-year-old now throws a big punch.

Aebersold wins ahead of top favorite Tove Alexandersson (30) from Sweden, who has won all of the last five long distance World Championship races. In the end, the Swiss is 31 seconds ahead of the Scandinavian. She lays the foundation for victory with an excellent performance in the first part of the course, in which she is one minute and 48 seconds clear of the Swede.

Just missed the second medal

Aebersold is only the second Swiss world champion over the longest individual distance, the first in ten years. The 23-time world champion Simone Niggli had won her eighth title in the long distance in Vuokatti, Finland.

Only a little bit was missing and Switzerland would have won a second medal. Russian-born Natalia Gemperle (32), who is taking part in a World Cup for her new homeland for the first time, finished fourth, six seconds behind third-placed Norwegian Andrine Benjaminsen (27). (SDA)

Source : Blick