The Sprints

Two out of three sprints are over and they have been very exciting! The sprint qualification on Friday night was an overall success, with both Hanny (5^th) and Rachel (15^th) qualifying for the final and the rest of the team having clean runs, only narrowly missing out on the final. Both the mens’ and womens’ courses  were quite similar, with a technical start in a residential area followed by a long leg across to another loop through a second residential area. Both areas consisted of irregular groups of houses with narrow passageways between, which required quick thinking and route choice analysis. The results in qualification were as follows:

Women:                                                              Men:
Hanny - 5^th                                                          Bryan - 20^th
Krystal - 22^nd                                                       Ian - 21^st
Rachel - 15^th                                                        Brodie - 19^th

Krystal had the following to say about her race; “I didn’t feel good physically but I was mostly happy with my route choice and I was planning ahead well. I believe that this was due to my technical preparation in the weeks leading up to WOC”.

Today was the sprint relay, with Rachel, Simon, Lachy and Hanny donning the green and gold. Rachel ran hard on a fast paced first leg and came back in 19^th. Simon and Lachy were out next and apart from a small tumble by Simon at the spectator control had smooth races to bring the team into 20^th before the last leg. Hanny had a strong finish and pushed hard to gain a few places and finish the team in 16^th.

Rachel had the following to say about her race; “The mass start was intense with all teams running straight into the sand dunes. The pace throughout the race was very fast and although I was happy with most of my route choice, I was unable to keep pace with the leading teams. It was however a fun race with cheering spectators all around.”

Check in later on to read a preview of the sprint final which is on tomorrow.