2012 Archive

Julian Dent and Aislinn Prendergast were our qualifers today for the long final.   The WOC long distance qualification was in typical Swiss “Mittelland” terrain and supposedly quite fast. Thus it was no suprise that times were quite close giving little margin for error.  The men had 12.2km and the women 8.3km.

Comments from Aislinn:

Today four athletes ran the long distance qualification; Julian, Rachel, Vanessa and myself. The qualification was held on a map about 25km from Lausanne, on an extremely flat piece of land, with just one steep-sided creek running through the middle of the map. The map was crisscrossed by a dense network of tracks, and had very variable vegetation, with patches of light green being mostly young beech trees, patches of stripey green being nettles and raspberries, and dark green being generally firs with nettles between. Clearings with striped green were to be avoided at all costs; these generally consisted of head-high nettles with fallen / cut wood between. The white, open areas were quite runnable and very visible, and control sites were mostly small clearings, depressions, thicket edges and the occasional ride. The openness of some of the forest meant that the course was more interesting than many of us expected; instead of track routes being the only viable options, it was sometimes faster to go straight.

After being quarantined in the small town of Apples, I was the first Australian starter. I ran hard but took fairly conservative route choices to begin.   I lost only a small amount of time on controls which I could see but not reach! Later in the course I took some straighter route choices and lost only a minute on control #13, on the end of a ride. I hit the ride and went left, into the striped clearing, while the control was to the right. I finished being irritated by my error but otherwise very happy with my run, and qualified 14th (although the winning Russian was the last starter and was given the wrong map, meaning she should not have run in my heat; this meant that there were 16 qualifiers in my heat instead of the traditional 15).

Rachel again came very close to qualifying, but sadly missed out. She reported feeling very tired and sluggish towards the end, a result of having been recently unwell.  Vanessa ran a quick race, but a fast heat and a few errors put her out of the final. She will now turn her focus to the Middle distance, which is her speciality.  Simone Niggli-Luder ran another great race to finish well clear of her rivals, while Minna Kauppi took top honours in her heat.

The Australian supporters then waited nervously for Julian to finish, and despite his quick splits we were still quite worried until the end! He ran a smooth race however, qualifying in an impressive 7th. The Swiss men were of course the ones to watch again, with Matthias Merz winning his heat, and the other two men easily qualifying. Olav Lundanes took out his heat, finishing right near the end.

Tomorrow (Mon evening – Tues am)should be an exciting day with the Middle Qualification races beginning from 1pm Swiss time.     Start times are:   Aislinn 1.11pm       Suzanne 1.19     Vanessa 1.51      Murray 3.03        Simon 3.19.  Add 7.5 hrs on for SA time and 8 hrs for eastern states.

1  Olav Lundanes  (NOR)  59.03

7  Julian Dent                     64.35

15                                         66.01

1 Minni Kauppi  (FIN)  49.34

15                                   57.05

19 Vanessa Round       58.57

1  Tatvana Riabkina (RUS)  50.00

14  Aislinn Prendergast      58.02

1  Simone Niggli-Luder (SWI)  47.39

15                                               59.17

17  Rachel Effeney                    60.33

Australia started WOC by getting two finalists at the sprint today. Julian Dent was the best with 32nd, while David Brickhill-Jones was 39th.

Dent lost 30 seconds at the first control but picked up after that for a solid result, if not quite what he would have hoped for. Brickhill-Jones, returning to Australian colours this year, qualified by the narrowest possible margin, then started well before losing some time at the end.

There were three near-misses in qualifying, with Simon Uppill missing out by four seconds – men’s qualifying, on a relatviely simple course, was so tight that in one heat 35 seconds behind the winner was not enough to qualify – and Rachel Effeney and Susanne Casanova both falling about 15 seconds short. The latter was a decent debut performance and augurs well for her chances of qualifying for the middle distance final later in the week.

At the front end of the field, it was a Swiss sweep of the men’s medals through a trio of Matthiases – Kyburz, Merz and Muller – whilst Simone Niggle-Luder overwhelmed the field to take her 18th career gold medal.A notable Southern Hemisphere result was Lizzie Ingham’s 9th, the best ever by a New Zealander.

Final results:

Men: 1 Matthias Kyburz (SUI) 15.32.0, 2 Matthias Merz (SUI) 15.49.5, 3 Matthias Muller (SUI) 15.59.0, 32 Julian Dent 17.50.3, 39 David Brickhill-Jones 18.00.6.

Women: 1 Simone Niggli-Luder (SUI) 15.43.7, 2 Maja Alm (DEN) 16.20.2, 3 Annika Billstam (SWE) 16.28.0.

Heat results for non-qualifiers:

Men C: 1 Matthias Merz (SUI)  13.23, 15 (last qualifier) Wolfgang Siegert (AUT) 14.27, 18 Simon Uppill 14.31.

Women A: 1 Helena Jansson (SWE) 13.57, 15 Gabija Razaityte (LTU) 15.49, 20 Susanne Casanova 16.05.

Women B: 1 Lizzie Ingham (NZL) 14.08, 15 Esther Doetsch (GER) 15.16, 16 Rachel Effeney 15.30.

Women C: 1 Annika Billstam (SWE) 13.32, 15 Ausrine Kutkaite (LTU) 14.36, 25 Bridget Anderson 16.32.

The Junior World Championships wrapped up today with the relay and wins to the Russian men’s and Danish women’s teams. The Australian men finished as the 10th official team and the Australian women in 24th.

Ian Lawford did a great job on the first leg for the men’s team finishing safely in the pack of main contenders before handing over to Oscar McNulty who probably had the run of the day to set Olle Poland off on the last leg fighting for a podium position. In the end the team finished 10th just over a minute off a podium position. The New Zealanders looked in contention for another medal with World Champion from the middle distance, Matt Ogden, setting off in 4th place, however he could not repeat his outstanding form from the previous day and the team finished in 8th place.

The Australian women ran consistently but never challenged the leading teams to finish in 24th.

Men’s Relay

1st Russia 93.10

2nd Denmark 94.13

3rd Norway 94.57

10th Australia 98.05

Women’s Relay

1st Denmark 94.05

2nd Sweden 94.20

3rd Switzerland 97.19

24th Australia 123.21

Okay, I know this is the Australian Orienteering home page but I’m sure that Aussie orienteers are also very excited by the outstanding success of 19 year old New Zealander Matt Odgen in winning the middle distance championship!   Matt started mid-field and had an excruciating wait to see whether later starters would beat his time.  Matt’s success wasn’t totally unexpected as he is a third time JWOC team member and did well in all races in 2011 finishing 15^th (middle), 21^st (sprint) and 30^th (long).  The Kiwis have a strong group of top orienteers at the moment and they will finish high up in the country team category at these championships.  As one Kiwi wrote on their forum:  “to borrow and modify a phrase from Thierry The Great, “no longer will the Scandinavians laugh when they see NZ on the starting list.”

On the Aussie front Ian Lawford had a solid run to finish 27^th in the A final, thus adding to his 20^th from the sprint.   WA’s Oscar McNulty came through with a pleasing 3^rd place in the “C” final, after not being totally healthy earlier in the week.  There were 47 starters in that race.   Michele Dawson again had a really classy result to finish 17^th in the “B” final.      The Championships conclude with the relays on Friday.

1. Ogden Matt NZL      27:55.9
2. Petržela Jan CZE      28:08.5            0:12.6
3. Schneider Florian SUI 28:09.2            0:13.3
4. Hann Nick NZL      30:50.8            2:54.9
5. Lawford Ian AUS     31:24.3            3:28.4 

Men “B”

1. Diener Lukas SUI       26:35.0
2. Robertson Tim NZL      28:44.6            2:09.6
3. Dewett Magnus DEN     29:01.5            2:26.5
4. Morrison DuncanNZL     32:27.1            5:52.1
5. Gregory Kasimir AUS     33:37.6            7:02.6 
6. Nankervis BrodieAUS    34:31.9            7:56.9 
7. Paterson Liam NZL      35:32.8           8:57.8

Poland Oliver                         AUS     DNS / DNF 

Men “C”

1. Baudot Remi FRA      24:05.9
2. Gillet Julien BEL     25:37.7            1:31.8
3. McNulty Oscar AUS     25:57.7            1:51.8 
4. Batin Ryan NZL      28:08.5            4:02.6
5. Massey Alex AUS     28:33.6           4:27.7 

Women       3.6 km 

1. Alexandersson Tove SWE 23:42.5
2. Sandberg Frida SWE     24:35.6            0:53.1
3. Mueller SandrineSUI       25:30.1            1:47.6
4. Robertson Laura NZL      28:45.0            5:02.5

Women “B”

1. Klysner Cecilie Friber DEN     23:19.6
2. Ivanova KristinaBUL     24:29.5            1:09.9
3. Poirot Delphine FRA      24:32.8            1:13.2
4. Dawson Michele AUS     28:06.6            4:47.0 
5. Saville Cosette NZL      29:01.9            5:42.3
6. Anderson Sarah NZL      29:53.3            6:33.7
7. Metherell Selena NZL      30:19.5            6:59.9
8. McMillan Jula NZL      30:24.3            7:04.7
9. Muir Heather AUS     31:47.3            8:27.7 
10. Burrill Lilian AUS     33:34.4            10:14.8
11. Buckerfield Amy AUS     46:40.7           23:21.1 

Ian Lawford’s sixth place was the highlight in the middle distance qualifying and puts him in a fantastic start position in the final.  Ian has been showing good form and looks set for another good result after his earlier 20th in the sprint.  Ian stated: “Lost a bit if time early on an then sloppy through the last ones. Lost maybe 1.20 or so all up so I thought I was going to be pretty borderline qualifying.” With only the top twenty runners in each heat qualifying through to the “A” final it was especially difficult for the men, having fields of at least 60 in their heats.   NSW’s Gregory Kasimir was unfortunate to miss the cut, placing 22^nd and just 30 seconds behind the mark.   Nevertheless his was a great run.   Eighteen year old Michele Dawson had her best run of the carnival finishing 23^rd and 90 seconds from the magical 20^th place, to be our highest placed girl.

It had been hoped to have 2 or 3 more runners progress through to the “A” final but it wasn’t to be.  Those placed 21-40^th will compete in the “B” final and those from 41nd and above take on the “C” final.   All useful races to further their international experience and to gain more form and confidence before the relays on Friday.    The New Zealanders had some outstanding performances with two boys and a girl making the top 20.   (The Jwoc blog has again been updated.)

MEN  – Heat 1 – 4.3km

1. Odum Marius ThraneDEN       23:16.3
2. Bezdîga Andrei MDA      23:22.6 0:06.3
3. Wängdahl Jens SWE       23:38.0 0:21.7
4. Ogden Matt NZL        25:31.7 2:15.4

20                                                           28.11

29. Robertson TimNZL       29:07.8 5:51.5
30. Poland Oliver AUS       30:12.3 6:56.0 
31. Massey AlexAUS      35:02.2 11:45.9 

Heat 2

1. Kinneberg Eskil NOR       25:00.6
2. Petržela Jan CZE         25:06.1 0:05.5
3. Aukrust Osmoen Jon NOR 25:08.7                  0:08.1
4. Lawford Ian AUS       25:35.1                  0:34.5 
5. Hann Nick NZL        25:43.4 0:42.8

20                                                           28.06

32. Paterson Liam NZL        29:53.2 4:52.6
33. McNulty Oscar AUS       34:26.3 9:25.7 
34. Yam San Leung HKG       55:12.6 30:12.0

Heat 3

1. Silva Luís POR       25:20.3
2. Edsen Jakob Ekhard DEN       25:43.1 0:22.8
3. Tikhonov GlebRUS       26:02.5 0:42.2

20                                                           29.39

22. Gregory Kasimir AUS       30:10.7 4:50.4 
23. Nankervis Brodie AUS       32:04.7 6:44.4 
24. Morrison Duncan NZL        34:54.3 9:34.0
25. Batin Ryan NZL        36:04.0 10:43.7

WOMEN  – Heat 1 –  3.6km

1. Narum Marte NOR       24:18.9
2. Basset Isia FRA        25:34.8 1:15.9
3. Butt Lucy GBR       26:10.1 1:51.2
4. Robertson LauraNZL       31:02.1 6:43.2

20                                                           32.46

29. Muir Heather AUS       34:46.2 10:27.3 
30. Metherell Selena NZL        38:47.7 14:28.8
31. Buckerfield Amy AUS       39:33.5 15:14.6 

Heat 2

1. Hagner Stine BaggerDEN      25:04.8
2. Jansson H. Mare NOR       26:13.4 1:08.6
3. Horčičková VendulaCZE         27:05.5 2:00.7
4.                                  32:39
5. McMillan JulaNZL        37:54.6 12:49.8
6. Anderson Sarah NZL        42:11.5                  17:06.7
7. Burrill Lilian AUS       42:29.0 17:24.2 

Heat 3

1. Kemp Emily CAN       25:27.8
2. Denisova Anastasia BLR         26:55.6 1:27.8
3. Morawska Anna POL        27:09.2 1:41.4

20                                                           32.37

23. Dawson Michele AUS       33:53.4 8:25.6 
24. Saville Cosette NZL        36:02.3 10:34.5

Yet another Tasmanian has shown their prowess on the international stage with rookie  team member Brodie Nankervis doing well to finish 40^th, and the first Australian, in the tough JWOC long distance event.    Ollie Poland, Oscar McNulty and Ian Lawford all improved on their places from last year with solid results in the first half of the field.  Queenslander Heather Muir was our best girl.  It was a day that produced many DNF’s, including 19 in the men, so it was pleasing to see that all our runners pushed through to the finish.

The outstanding result of the day was the success of Canadian junior Emily Kemp, who won the bronze medal, in what is the first World Championship medal for that country.   This was not totally unexpected as she had been placed 12^th in this event last year, and had run a good WOC relay leg in 2011.     The New Zealanders also had some great results, especially in the boys, with three in the top thirty.

There is great coverage of maps and race analysis on World of O.   Also a good update on the Australian blog site above.

Men         11.5 km 

1. Kinneberg Eskil NOR       69:46.1
2. Odum Marius Thrane DEN71:43.2                 1:57.1
3. Tikhonov Gleb RUS        72:26.0 2:39.9
4. Ogden Matt NZL        80:29.8 10:43.7
5. Hann Nick NZL        82:39.7                 12:53.6
6. Robertson Tim NZL        85:15.2 15:29.1
7. Nankervis Brodie AUS       88:05.7 18:19.6 
8. Poland Oliver AUS       90:28.6 20:42.5 
9. Lawford Ian AUS       92:25.3 22:39.2 
10. McNulty Oscar AUS       97:10.6 27:24.5 
11. Morrison Duncan NZL        97:29.9 27:43.8
12. Massey Alex AUS       102:10.5               32:24.4 
13. Gregory Kasimir AUS       117:34.3               47:48.2 
14. Paterson LiamNZL       134:51.0               65:04.9

Batin Ryan                           NZL        DNF

Women        7.7 km

1. Nurmi Kirsi FIN         57:55.5
2. Sandberg Frida SWE       60:26.3 2:30.8
3. Kemp Emily CAN       60:54.2 2:58.7
4. Metherell SelenaNZL       74:49.2 16:53.7
5. Robertson Laura NZL        78:18.7 20:23.2
6. McMillan Jula NZL       83:53.3 25:57.8
7. Muir Heather AUS       84:24.3 26:28.8 
8. Buckerfield Amy AUS       89:26.8 31:31.3 
9. Burrill Lilian AUS       103:15.0               45:19.5 
10. Dawson Michele AUS       104:43.5               46:48.0 
11. Anderson Sarah NZL        157:44.7               99:49.2

A fantastic breakthrough performance by Ian Lawford, of 20^th, was the highlight for Australia in the opening event, the sprint, at the Junior World Championships.  Being within a minute of the winner was an outstanding result for Ian, who has spent the last few months in Scandinavia training and competing.     WA youngster Oscar McNulty and ACT’s Ollie Polandwere both within 90 seconds of the Russian victor.

The races were held in the city centre of Kosice, the second largest city of Slovakia in hot conditions.  It was a typical urban map but navigation was made harder by many spectators making the laneways harder to see.    The Nordic countries dominated with 4 out of 6 medals and 13 within Top 20.  There was another stand-out feat by Sweden’s Tove Alexandersson, as her gold medal made it JWOC medal no 18 for this accomplished orienteer!    Jwoc numbers are growing – there were 176 starters in the men’s race and 140 in the women.

MEN

1. Tikhonov Gleb Russia                   14.05,7
2. Petržela Jan Czech Republic 14.23,0                  0.17,3
3. Kinneberg Eskil Norway                14.23,4                0.17,7
4. Ogden Matt New Zealand     14.43,0                  0.37,3
5. Lawford Ian Australia              14.59,1              0.53,4
6. Robertson Tim New Zealand     15.15,0                  1.09,3
7. McNulty Oscar Australia              15.32,8               1.27,1
8. Hann Nick New Zealand     15.35,3                1.29,6
9. Poland Oliver Australia              15.43,6               1.37,9
10. Batin Ryan New Zealand     15.57,5                1.51,8
11. Gregory Kasimir Australia              16.00,7               1.55,0
12. Morrison Duncan New Zealand     16.10,0                  2.04,3
13. Massey Alex Australia              16.29,4               2.23,7
14. Nankervis Brodie Australia              16.56,6                2.50,9

Paterson, Liam          New Zealand   DSQ

WOMEN

1. Alexandersson ToveSweden              11.12,8
2. Klingenberg Emma Denmark             11.45,3                 0.32,5
3. Sandberg Frida Sweden               12.06,9                0.54,1
4. Robertson Laura New Zealand     13.10,5                 1.57,7
5. Saville Cosette New Zealand     13.54,1                 2.41,3
6. McMillan Jula New Zealand     13.54,1               2.41,3
7. Metherell Selena New Zealand     14.06,7                 2.53,9
8. Muir Heather Australia              14.27,9              3.15,1
9. Burrill Lilian Australia              15.08,5              3.55,7
10. Buckerfield Amy Australia              16.49,5               5.36,7

Anderson Sarah         New Zealand    DSQ

Dawson Michele           Australia           DSQ

Program for coming events, with Slovakian time:

Monday: Long – 09:00 – 16:30

Wednesday: Middle Qualifying – 10:00 – 13.00

Thursday: Middle Final – 9:00 – 14:00

Friday: Relay – 10:00 – 13:00

Long Terrain description

“The Kosice karst terrain is mostly very runnable compared to the extreme variants you find in parts of Slovenia or Croatia. However, the semi open and dense areas can be very tricky – so the orienteering should be very interesting. On the slopes of the depressions there are rocky fields and cliffs. There should be both route choice options and tricky short legs in the courses.”  World of O.

Two Australians won bronze medals in Saturday’s long distance finals at the World Masters Orienteering Championships in Germany. Natasha Key took her second medal of the week when she came third in W40, while Su Yan Tay matched that performance in W45.

For Key the medal was the latest of many, both in sprint and long distance. Tay, who took out the sprint in 2009, had hitherto had her best performances at that distance, and was disappointed by her efforts in long distance qualifying, but produced an excellent performance on the day when it mattered.

Other Australians to achieve top-ten results were Warren Key (6th, M50) and Hermann Wehner (7th, M85). Geoff Lawford and Jenny Bourne both won their qualifying events but struck trouble in the final and missed the top ten.

Full Australian A final results:

W40: Natasha Key 3

M40: Blair Trewin 20

W45: Su Yan Tay 3, Wendy Read 45

W50: Liz Abbott 19

M50: Warren Key 6, Jim Russell 22

W55: Jenny Bourne 25, Sue Key 60

M55: Geoff Lawford 20, Ted van Geldermalsen 65

W65: Libby Meeking 71

W70: Ann Ingwersen 13, Janet Tarr 47

W75: Maureen Ogilvie 16

M85: Hermann Wehner 7

The World University Orienteering Championships concluded today in Alicante, Spain.  The Swiss and Swedes dominated the medal race.  In the men’s event Switzerland claimed victory by a mere 18 seconds from Sweden.   However the gold and blue colours of Sweden triumphed by 4 minutes in the women’s, with the host nation thrilled at gaining the bronze.  Matt Parton had his best run of the carnival, as did Laurina Neumann.  Rachel  Effeney seems to have had a pretty useful first leg.  The NZ’ers won the down-under battle finishing ahead of both our teams, but narrowly so in the women.

Men   

1  Switzerland    1:46:22  A Rüedlinger  34:49         J Mathys  37:12       A Kyburz  34:21

2  Sweden            1:46:40  O Sjoeberg  34:53     A Ridefelt  36:35               E Liljequist 35:12

3 Norway       1:48:44  J Forseth Indgaard 34:51  VRuttenborg 37:20       V R Bråten 36:33

18  New Zealand  2:16:41  G Beveridge 40:50         J Harvey 52:40                 T Scott 43:11

 20  Australia       2:31:14  Matt Parton 42:57   Oliver Crosato 50:55    Aaron Breed 57:22

DNF  New Zealand  2      Simon Jager mp      Georgia Whitla 1:01:53  I. Scott 1:02:31

WOMEN

1  Sweden   1:50:25  A Forsberg 37:22             A Bachman 36:55              L Forsgren 36:08

2  Switzerland    1:54:31  B Mathys 37:18                 J Gross 36:16      S Jenzer 40:57

3  Spain                 1:58:38  O R Perramon 38:42  A G Sánchez 39:47  A S. Arqués 40:09

12  New Zealand  2:16:14  K Morrison 39:51  A Simpson 45:08  GKnarston 51:15

13  Australia  2:19:39    R Effeney  41:27     A Prendergast 46:18       B Anderson 51:54

NC  Australia  2:21:14      L Gillis 46:52      L Neumann 45:33             Ilka Barr 48:49

NC = non-competitive, as only the first team from a country is counted.

Four of the Aussie team in Rachel Effeney, Bridget Anderson, Aislinn Prendergast and Murray Scown leave to join the WOC team for a week’s training camp in Switzerlandhaving benefited from the tough international racing here.  Bridget and Murray will be making their WOC debuts.  Kiwis who raced here in Kate Morrison, Greta Knarston, Angela Simpson and Toby Scott will also be competing at WOC as part of NZ’s 10 person team.

World Masters Championships to be seen from above via drones!

Who has never wished to see the competition area from above? To have a point of view that shows control points at once and clearly differentiates peculiar kinds of terrains. Or to watch the runner who started earlier and thus find the optimal course to the next control.

Exactly that point of view is going to be provided on Saturday for the long-distance World masters finals. Professional aerial photos will be taken at the competition using modern photo and video drones. That innovative service is offered by the company “PHT Airpicture GmbH – Video- und Luftbildtechnik Michael Mehle”. The innovative point herein is the use of unmanned drones that are led to their destination by coordinates sent from the ground. From there they send high resolution pictures in best quality. The already broad spectrum of uses for the technology is enlarged by the production of pictures for orienteering.

Perhaps it is possible to gain new insights in orienteering through this technology. Surely interesting aerial photographs will result.   Homepage: www.pht-airpicture.de

The Masters have just had two long qualifying events and have the final on Saturday.  Amongst those who  qualified highly were Aussies Jenny Bourne and Geoff Lawford (both 2^nd), Natasha and Warren Key, Blair Trewin, Jim Russell, Hermann Wehner and Ann Ingwerson

The Junior World Championships start on Monday in Slovakia with the sprint event.   See what our juniors have been up to in training via their blog site (above) or here – http://ausjuniororienteering.blogspot.sk/

The middle event today saw Swiss star Martin Hubmann win his second gold medal of the championships with over a 2 minute victory.  Murray Scown ran solidly for 33^rd place in a good simulation for his WOC debut shortly.  He has a slight foot problem and thus won’t run the relay tomorrow.  Rachel and Aislinn were mid field but disappointed with a number of small time losses.

The star of the down-under contingent was New Zealander Kate Morrison and her 10^th place, which was just a touch over 2 minutes from a place.   A great result.

The women’s course was 4km in length, with 15 controls and 125m climb.

The men’s was 5.4km; 19c; 180m climb.

1              32.49     Martin Hubmann             Switzerland

2              35.10     Zsolt Lenkei                        Hungary

3              35.41     Adam Chromý                   Czech Rep

33           41.37     Murray Scown

58           45.40     Toby Scott                           NZ

64           47.03     Matt Parton

67           47.45     Simon Jager                        NZ

69           47.57     Gene Beveridge                               NZ

78           50.59     Jourdan Harvey                                NZ

80           51.06     Oliver Crosato

81           51.11     Aaron Breed

1              29:39     Lillian Forsgren                 Sweden

2              31:38     Anna Forsberg                  Sweden

3              32:35     Arqués  Serrallonga         Spain

10           34:54     Kate Morrison                   NZ

38           41.26     Rachel Effeney

42           42:36     Aislinn Prendergast

43          43:09     Greta Knarston                 NZ

50          46:09     Imogene Scott                  NZ

53          47:04     Angela Simpson                NZ

54           47:18     Ilka Barr

57           49:01     Bridget Anderson

Friday’s relay is located adjacent to the middle area and the terrain is the same, again featuring some deserted farmland, rocks and vegetation with low visibility.  “Soft terrain but rubbery because of the presence of stones, rocks and ravines.”

Courses are 5.4km (Women) with expected leg times of 35-40 mins, and 6.5km (Men) with legs planned at 40-45 minutes.

Each country can run two 3 person teams in the men and women categories.  So, in the women we will have 2 teams and in the men just one, as we have only 4 men participating.   Our teams are as follows:

1. Matt Parton
2. Oliver Crosato
3. Aaron Breed

1. Rachel Effeney
2. Aislinn Prendergast
3. Bridget Anderson

1. Lauren Gillis
2. Laurina Neumann
3. Ilka Barr

The men start first at 8.30am Spanish time (4.30pm here) and the women run off at 9am.