Hanny Allston wins her heat in Middle Distance qualification race with the fastest time of the day! Report from Hilary Wood in Switzerland.

Hanny Allston had a perfect run on Tuesday in perfect conditions, sunny and warm but with a cool mountain breeze. She blitzed her heat in a time of 22 min 12 sec for the 3.2 km course. Her time was the fastest for the day across all heats and it was over a minute faster than the next best. She says she felt good and is looking forward to a repeat performance tomorrow (Wednesday) in the A Final. Jasmine Neve (28:34) has also made the A final finishing in fifteenth position in heat C. She felt her run was lacking in confidence but it was good enough to come in the top twenty and make the A final.

In the men’s competition Julian Dent finished in ninth place in a time of 26:19 in heat A (fastest time in this heat 24:23 by Swiss junior Andreas Ruedlinger), confirming his place in the A final. He fell during the race and did not have a clean run; he estimates that he lost around one and a half minutes through errors, and is looking forward to having a clean run to be competitive tomorrow. Simon Uppill also made the A final in 20th position with a time of 27:30. He was pretty pleased with his run and is feeling good for tomorrow.

Dave Meyer was very disappointed with his run and lost valuable minutes on a couple of controls. Dave Meyer, Louis Elson and Ryan Smyth all finished in the 30th minute although they were running in different heats. Erin Post, Vanessa Round and Zebedy Hallett also finished about the same time of 32 minutes.

Conrad Elson finished just in 30:39 just off the pace of the his team-mates Dave, Louis and Ryan. Ainsley Cavanagh started her course well and then made a few mistakes and eventually finished in a time of 41:41. Overall a fair start to the competition with Hanny’s fantastic run and Julian also coming in the top ten in his heat. Australia now has four chances to reach the podium for tomorrow’s middle distance final to be held at Taverne, where a special bridge has been constructed across the main road for the competitors to use. The map area goes over a road tunnel and covers some of the local town area as well as the lovely cool forests of chestnut and beech trees.

Hilary Wood

World Junior Championships At Tesserete, Switzerland
Middle Distance Qualifying heats

Men: 3.9 km:
Heat A:
1 Andreas Rüedlinger SUI 24:23
2 Marcus Millegård FIN 24:30
3 Michal Krajcík SVK 24:52
9 Julian Dent AUS 26:19
26 Louis Elson AUS 29:18

Heat B:
1 Olav Lundanes NOR 24:17
2 Philippe Adamski FRA 24:22
3 Eriks Lebedoks LAT 25:05
29 Ryan Smyth AUS 29:46
30 David Meyer AUS 29:50

Heat C:
1 Fabian Hertner SUI 23:38
2 Zsolt Lenkei NED 24:16
3 Jan Palas CZE 24:28
20 Simon Uppill AUS 27:39
36 Conrad Elson AUS 30:39

Women: 3.2 km:
Heat A:
1 Elise Egseth NOR 23:26
2 Silja Tarvonen FIN 24:20
3 Anna Persson SWE 24:48
23 Erin Post AUS 32:14
24 Vanessa Round AUS 32:16

Heat B:
1 Hanny Allston AUS 22:12
2 Heini Wennman FIN 25:34
3 Saila Kinni FIN 25:39
21 Zebedy Hallett AUS 32:04

Heat C:
1 Capucine Vercellotti FRA 25:01
2 Rahel Friederich SUI 25:12
3 Amélie Chataing FRA 25:25
15 Jasmine Neve AUS 28:34
38 Ainsley Cavanagh AUS 41:41