Nopesport

The World University Orienteering Championships kicked off today in Kosice, Slovakia and it was a good day for the GBR. Helen Bridle, fresh off her podium finish in Denmark last week, took a silver medal in the long. Helen said she had a really good run and was very pleased with Silver. It was quite spread out at the top of the womens as Dana Brozkova took the Gold by almost 3.5mins! The Czech Republic runner making it two golds in a row in this competition. Russia's Larisa Stanchenko took the bronze but Helen was never under pressure from her as she was a further 2mins back.

The next British girl was Rachel Elder who didn't have the cleanest runs so wasn't too happy with her run and finished in 20th place. Mhairi MacKenzie was 2 places further back in 22nd. Mhairi injured her knee on what was quite rocky terrain at times. She hopes to be fine for the middle tomorrow though.

There was much hope for the men with Oli Johnson keen to put the disappointment of his WOC disqualification behind him and Matt Crane also a WOC competitor last year. However it was not a great day at the office for these two. Oli, who was very relazed at the start, was maybe too relaxed as he made a minute mistake on the 1st and 2nd controls. 'I picked up the map and a big grin on my face' said Oli but that disappeared soon after. Desite the mistakes he really enjoyed it and finished a credable 23rd. It was a similar story for Matt who had a strong run and really enjoyed it but made two mistakes totalling 6mins which cost him a high place. He came in in 34th. The two edinburgh-based athletes, OLeg Cheplin and Murray Strain were off early. Oleg, who has recently been selected for the WC finals races in France, was 1st finisher but ended up in 42nd place. Murray was 2mins further back in 45th.

The medals for the men were taken by WOC athletes, Michal Smola 1st, Matthias Merz 2nd and Øystein Kvaal Østerbø 3rd. Øystein denied the home crowd a local to cheer as he pipped Slovakia's Lukas Bartak to bronze by just 2secs

Tomorrow sees the middle distance take place. The startlists for this are to be released by 6pm local time (5pm GMT).