The nine, five men and four women, made it to the top 20 in their heats from the original 15 Estonian entrants, and thus qualified, on the opening day of the competition Wedensday.

Brothers Lauri and Timo Sild (pictured) came joint second in their heat, and Kenny Kivikas was third in his – Kristo Kristo Heinmann and Heino Ollin were the other men to qualify.

Timo Sild was particularly pleased to have got through after picking up a nasty injury in a competition in the U.S. last month, telling ERR's sports portal that the main challenge on the densely-forested course was the navigational aspect, rather than the running.

Meanwhile, Lauri Sild says he may not start in the short course final, but rather save his energy for the relay race later in the competition; Kivikas similarly has not yet made a final decision on whether to compete in the normal course event, noting that the short track, for which he has qualified, and the relay event, offer a better chance of success and adding that the weather on Thursday – when the normal course final is set to be held – is warm.

Evely Kaasiku, Eleri Hirv, Marianne Haug and Margret Zimmermann went through from among the women.

Despite qualifying, Kaasiku was disappointed with her her performance, saying: "In actual fact, today didn't go well at all, and I had already seen that the forest track is extremely technical; it was perhaps one of the most technical heats I've ever run."

All results can be viewed here .

ETV2 is showing events on August 4 at 2:00 p.m., on August 6 at 1:30 p.m. and on August 7 at 09:50 a.m.

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