Middle Distance

The WOC Middle Distance final held today at Darnaway Forest featured four Aussies – Hanny Allston, Anna Sheldon, Lachlan Dow and Simon Uppill.

Anna finishing in front of Darnaway Castle

Hanny 

Our best result was posted by Hanny, who finished in 21^st position. She lost time early in the course - getting stuck in thick vegetation on the way to the first control and taking some time to convert to forest navigation after the previous sprint days. However she ran very strongly and made up significant time during the mid and late parts of the course. Anna made a return to WOC level competition with a 54^th place. Anna commented that she thought the map and course were good but didn’t have the legs for racing today.

Overall, in the women’s event it was the experienced athletes that dominated. The 5.3km course was won by 39 year old Annika Billstam from Sweden, defending her title from 2014. Second place was taken by Merja Rantanen from Finland and third by Emma Johansson from Sweden. The Great British crowd enjoyed cheering Catherine Taylor into 5^th position.

Lachy

The Australian men were both satisfied with solid runs over the 6.2km course. Lachlan was one of the early starters and had a clean run, coming into the finish as the course leader. He finished in 56^th position. Simon came 35^th, less than 5 minutes off the winning time. He did not lose any significant time over the entire course – a remarkable performance in this terrain.

The men’s 6.2km race was won by Daniel Hubmann of Switzerland, repeating his victory from the middle distance World Cup race in Tasmania in January. Second was Lucas Basset of France and third was Olle Bostrom of Sweden.

Simon

Tomorrow is the relay, also to be held at Darnaway Forest. The Australian teams will be made of the runners from today along with Brodie Nankervis and Laurina Neumann.