On Thursday, the schedule was set for long distances races in classic that also was the last day of classic style racing in 2024 Masters World Cup in Vuokatti. As the racing distances during the first two competition days had only been 3-5 km long, the athletes had to adapt to a totally new kind of racing in Vuokatti with long distances varying between 15 km and 30 km.

The first World Champion of Thursday was seen in M10 class, where Harri Ketola from Finland completed the 15 km race in time of 55.40,4 to claim the gold medal. Besides Finland, also Norway got two gold medals in 15km races from classes M12 and F11.

After the 15 km races, it was time for the longest distances of the whole week with 30 km races. In Men’s M07, M08 and M09 classes, the distance sure didn’t scare the competitors away because each of these classes had between 22- 30 people on the start list. The fastest competitor in these big age group was the winner of M07, Harri Ala-Lahti of Finland with his time 1.33.52,4.

Overall, Finnish athletes continued their great performances also in the classic style long distance races as they were able to claim 18 out of the 23 gold medals on Thursday. Other gold medals went to Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland.

Results from Thursday can be found here:
http://www.helatulos.fi/Kisat24/MastersWC/to_r.htm