Venla Harju wins surprise bronze in middle distance at European Orienteering Championships
Venla Harju of Tampereen Pyrintö won bronze in the middle distance at the European Orienteering Championships in Druskininkai, her first individual championship medal in four years.
Venla Harju won bronze in the middle distance at the European Orienteering Championships in Druskininkai, Lithuania, at the end of September. She called the performance unusually clean, telling Aamulehti she could not remember navigating such challenging terrain so cleanly from start to finish.
Sweden's Hanna Lundberg took gold and Norway's Pia Young Vik silver. Harju finished 43 seconds behind Lundberg and 27 seconds behind Vik over the 5.5-kilometre course, and described the medal as a welcome reward after a four-year gap between individual championship medals.
Harju missed the World Sprint Championships this summer because of injury, so she had placed extra value on the forest-focused European event. She ran on Finland's first relay team, which finished sixth; Finland's second team claimed bronze. Harju said she felt proud of the younger runners and will take her career one day at a time.
Catch the full story over at Aamulehti
