The Australian Boomerangs had a strong finish to their World Championship campaign in the forests of northern Finland Saturday.  After a storming first leg from Simon Uppill the men’s team placed 20th. While the women’s team finished strong to place 13th.

Simon Uppill ‘had a clean run and got into a good pack and stuck with them’. Little did Simon know that the pack was the the actual leading group and Simon finished first leg in 11th. This sent WOC debutante Josh Blatchford out only 54 seconds from the leading team. Josh only found out in the last two days that he was needed for the relay due to Lachlan Dow’s ankle injury. He had a ‘pretty good run with only a few small misses’ and sent Bryan Keely out in 20th position. Bryan Keely had a solid run and finished strong to maintain 20th position. A great result, considering the disrupted build up, with a two place improvement on last year’s result. It could make the difference between two long/middle places or one for next year’s World Championships.

In the women’s race Vanessa Round provided a great start for Australia coming back in 10th place 4.41 behind the leading team. Aislinn Prendergast ‘had a good run except from one big mistake’ and sent Hanny out in 16th place. Hanny Allston, despite nursing an ankle injury from the middle final stormed through the final leg ‘feeling the best I’ve felt all week’  with the 7th best leg time to bring the women into 13th place. A solid performance and which should guarantee two spots in the long/middle distances for next years World Championships.

For all the inside news from the Boomerang’s WOC week check out the team blog. 

Results

GPS