Swedish orienteers prevailed in the Middle distance finals at the Junior World Orienteering Championships in Aalborg, Denmarjk, taking the top two womens and four of the top six mens podium positions.
The three New Zealand finalists in the race, Angela Simpson, Scott McDonald and Matt Ogden had steady races to finish midfield.
The womens race was won by Swedish defending champion Tove Alexandersson, running a controlled and mistake free 3.9 km final in 23 minutes 20 seconds.
Team-mate Lilian Forsgren was second, 35 seconds back, with Swiss Sarina Jenzer in third.
Reigning Short and Long distance champion,Ida Bobach was a non-starter, after turning her ankle in the qualification race.
New Zealand's Angela Simpson in 36th couldn' t quite match her excellent Sprint 18th placing earlier in the week, but can look back on a considerable improvement since her debut in Italy in 2009.
Norwegian Gaute Hallan Stiewer had a virtually mistake free race, losing only ten seconds in navigational errors, to finish in 23:44 minutes and prevent a Swedish 1-2-3 in the mens race.
Scott Mcdonald and Matt Ogden, on the first occasion of New Zealand having more than one mens qualifier, finished only 3 seconds apart in 45th and 46th place.
Impressive runs came from the B-finalists Laura Robertson and Jourdan Harvey, making up for missing the A-final to finish in 12th and 9th places respectively.
After racing through the pressure of four individual races in five days, the New Zealand juniors now face a different pressure, the cauldron of the team Relay championships.
With many of the Kiwis in excellent form, supporters are hopeful that our relay charge will see a rare foray into the top ten placings on Saturday 10 July.
The dominant Scandinavian juniors, particularly the Swedes, are universally expected to feature on the podium in the fast paced relays set on the coastal sand dunes terrain of Jutland, Denmark.
Results, 2010 Junior World Orienteering Championships
Aalborg, Denmark
Middle Distance Finals
All runners New Zealand unless otherwise noted
A Final, Women 3.9 km
1 Tove Alexandersson, Sweden, 25:35
2 Lilian Forsgren, Sweden, 26:10
3 Sarina Jenzer, Switzerland, 26:51
36 Angela Simpson, 31:43
B Final, Women 3.3 km
1 Margaux Vassy, France 25:19
12 Laura Robertson, 27:55
17 Selena Metherall 29:20
21 Jula Mcmillan, 30:05
27 Kate Morrison, 32:20
43 Jaime Goodwin, 36:53
A Final, Men 4.675 km
1 Gaute Hallan Steiwer, Norway, 23:44
2. Jonas Leandersson SWE 24:53
3. Olle Boström SWE 25:10
4. Gustav Bergman SWE 25:13
5. Albin Ridefelt SWE 25:25
45 Scott Mcdonald, 32:07
46 Matt Ogden, 32:10
B Final, Men 4.2 km
1 Matjaž Štanfel, Croatia, 24:10
9 Jourdan Harvey, 26:12
15 Gene Beveridge, 26:43
44 Toby Scott, 34:14
C Final, Men 3.925 km
1 Andrew Childs, United States, 24:50
20 Duncan Morrison, 34:00
