Peter Molloy helped GB to Gold in the WUOC Sprint Relay

A fantastic 2nd leg from Forth Valley Orienteers' Peter Molloy helped Great Britain to the World University Championship Sprint Relay gold medal in Razlog, Bulgaria.

Although the Sprint Relay is a relatively new addition to the WUOC programme, GB has had success in the past, with the gold medal in 2016, and hopes were high that another medal was on the cards this year, despite a number of nations being able to call upon the services of athletes from their full World Championship teams.

Peter was well set up for his leg by Rachel Brown (ESOC), who was 7th on the opener (13.08), 25 seconds behind leaders and pre-race favourites Sweden. Peter went out hard and confident, reeling in the teams ahead of him, and was up to 2nd by the third control. A good execution on the long leg maintained the place, and he was able to resist a strong challenge from both France and Austria to return in 12.29, six seconds off the front, with the 2nd quickest time of the leg.

Eddie Narbett (INT) kept the team well in contention, in what was now a four horse race, and dropped just one second to Switzerland to come back 3rd (12.43 for the leg). Fiona Bunn (TVOC) was faced with a 29 second gap to make up to the front, but went well to get back up into 2nd, and when Sweden made a serious error in the gaffled stage, she hit the front, and held on by eight seconds from Switzerland for the gold medal (12.48 for the leg, 50.58 composite).

Interestingly, none of the British quartet was quickest on their leg, which is generally a sign of team success, but all four held their composure when others around them were finding it tough going.

Post-race, Peter said “It was brilliant set of runs from the team to deliver the sweetest result of them all. In my mind we were aiming for a medal and would be probably be battling for 3rd behind the big 2, (Sweden and Switzerland) so a gold is just glorious. Yes, we got a bit lucky, but we absolutely made our own luck by running cleanly and strongly, thus staying firmly in the mixer from start to finish. This is a moment I’ll remember for a very long time, and I imagine it’ll take a while to sink in properly.”