Nopesport

It has been a mixed day today, as qualifiers always seem to be. 5 out of 12 British athletes through to the A final. As Mhairi was saying, out there was anyone’s race and so it proved, the fast terrain favouring the runners today giving an interesting set of results. No team was successful in getting a full team through to the final. It showed with the likes of Francisco Navarro Cutill, Italy and Tue Lasson, Denamrk (2nd and 5th in the Sprint respectively) failed to make the A final for their respective countries.

There were some notable runs in the races today, with Hanny Allston, Australia, starting at the start of the middle block coming through to win the heat by 3 minutes clear of two Finish girls. The home nation saw Andreas Ruedlinger and Fabian Hertner go through in style by winning their respective heats. The French girls did well with 5 out of 6 getting through to the final with a win for Capucine Versellotti in her heat.

Scott Fraser, starting last, qualified after easing up half way round to finish in 13th place. There was a long wait for Oleg Cheplin once he had finished, but was safe, qualifying in 16th place. There was disappointment for the rest of the lads. Dan, who on his swansong tried to push it too hard to qualify which ultimately made him miss in places and drop down the results. James Tullie and Duncan Coombs had strong debuts on the international stage but missed qualifying by a couple of minutes each. Mat Dickinson on his debut had a few misses that dragged him down but he is positive about the lessons he has learnt to take forward to the next races.

Mhairi Mackenzie, like Scott, qualified with ease into 6th place in her heat. Cerys Manning and Lizzie Adams, had a similar agonising wait like Oleg, but qualified in 10th and 16th respectively. Alison the last starter in the women’s, just missed out on the A final. We were waiting for her to pop out of the forest as the Swedish commentator announced the 60 females in the final. Jess Halliday ran a good race bar a few wobbles and slipped down the leader board out of the top twenty for the A final. Helen, DNF’d after waking up with a cold, but was still announced with the fastest time of the day and the slowest run in split.

The team are still buoyant with the results and are pleased, once again it shows that statistically it is still harder to qualify for a JWOC final than it is a WOC. Tomorrow is the Middle Distance final with the B and C finals going off first (no British athletes in the C final), followed by the A final.

Girls A

1. NOR - Elise Egseth 23:26
2. FIN - Silja Tarvonen 24:20
3. SWE - Anna Persson 24:48

6. GBR - Mhairi Mackenzie 25:56
16. GBR - Lizzie Adams 29:25

Girls B

1. AUS - Hanny Allston 22:12
2. FIN - Heini Wennman 25:34
3. FIN - Saila Kinni 25:29

10. GBR - Cerys Manning 28:17
DNF. GBR - Helen Gardner

Girls C

1. FRA - Capucine Vercellotti 25:01
2. SUI - Rahel Friederich 25:12
3. FRA - Amélie Chataing 25:25

27. GBR - Alison O'Neil 32:33
29. GBR - Jessica Halliday 33:08

Boys A

1. SUI - Andreas Rüedlinger 24:23
2. SWE - Marcus Millegård 24:30
3. SVK - Michal Krajcík 24:52

27. GBR - James Tullie 29:19
32. GBR - Dan Halliday 30:10

Boys B

1. NOR - Olav Lundanes 24:17
2. FRA - Philippe Adamski 24:22
3. LAT - Eriks Lebedoks 25:05

16. GBR - Oleg Chepelin 27:58
25. GBR - Duncan Coombs 29:38

Boys C

1. SUI - Fabian Hertner 23:38
2. HUN - Zsolt Lenkei 24:16
3. CZE - Jan Palas 24:28

13. GBR - Scott Fraser 26:13
37. GBR - Matt Dickinson 31:19

For full results, and dodgy splits, visit the JWOC Race Website