Sunday, August 19, 2007

DAY 2: LONG QUALIFYING

Temperatures droped in Kiev today from around the 30's to the low 20's which was a welcome relief for Australia's runners in the Long Qualifying event. Australia had 5 starters biding for a place in the Long Final but unfortunately only 2 suceeded. The terrain was very "tough and demanding" according to most of the runners which was a little unlike anything they had experienced previously on training maps. Results seemed to indicate the continental and Eastern European runners were more in their element with lots of heavy vegetation.

Today's Long Qualifying finish was amongst the much talked about high grasses and thick vegetation.


L-R: Anna Sheldon (QLD), Sue Neve (womens coach), Dave Shepherd (ACT) and Reuben Smith (SA) arrive back to the hotel after a tough days work.

The Mens Qualifying heats were around the 1hr mark with the course setter choosing a rather heavy course with lots of slow vegetation. Dave Shepherd looked like a promising finalist after weeks of strong training leading upto this years World Championships but he missed out on qualifying by only 4seconds, 16th position. "I kept making small mistakes and could not find the smooth feeling through the controls" commented Shepherd after returning to the team hotel. Reuben Smith was Australia's only other competitor in the mens Long Qualifying event. "I was happy with my run and made no mistakes" stated Smith but it was not enough in the highly competitive mens field placing in 24th position.

Dave Shepherd and Reuben Smith talk about their experiences out there today.

The Womens Qualifying heats were experiencing much of the same toughness as the Mens Qualifing heats with many comments about the vegetation of the courses. Anna Sheldon overcame her problems from yesterdays Sprint Qualifying event to thrive in the toughness of todays course to place an impressive 6th position, and very comfortably move into the finals. Hanny Allston although not as dominate today also comfortably qualified in 10th position. "I made alot of mistakes, lots of room for improvement" were Allston's comments as she heads towards the finals. Kathryn Ewels battled it out the best she could but just found the terrain too heavy for her faster orienteering style and ended up in 20th position.

Hanny Allston (TAS) relaxes in her room after todays qualifying, before hitting the books for a little light studying.

Long Qualifying Results (top15 qualify)
Men A: 1 Marc Launstein (SUI) 57:40, NO AUSTRALIAN STARTER
Men B: 1 Matthias Merz (SUI) 54:36, 16 Dave Shepherd (AUS) +8:44 NOT QUALIFIED
Men C: 1 Philippe Adamski (FRA) 57: 28, 24 Reuben Smith (AUS) +13:12 NOT QUALIFIED

Women A: 1 Simone Niggli (SUI) 43:25, 20 Kathryn Ewels (AUS) +20:00 NOT QUALIFIED
Women B: 1 Lea Mueller Jukola (FIN) 46:36, 10 Hanny Allston (AUS) +7:25 QUALIFIED
Women C: 1 Anne Margathe Hausken (NOR) 47:52, 10 Anna Sheldon (AUS) +8:08 QUALIFIED


Meanwhile Jo Allison (ACT) prepares for tomorrow's Middle Qualifying event at the official training.


L-R: Rob Walter (ACT), Julian Dent (NSW) and Jo Allison (ACT) feel comfortable with today's training "model" mapping standard and terrain style.

Tomorrow will be the last day of qualifying before the athlete's take a rest day before commencing the finals at 2007 World Championships.

Also on the rest day we will try and cover some other insights within the team, who are room mates, what is our favorite ukranian food and how we spend our spare time between races and training.

Signing off for another day, Troy

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

yay! good on ya anna and hanny! good luck in the final. seemed like a tough heat shep. all the best for the middle quals tomoz. glad to see it cooled down a bit for the long. hope you are all having fun :))

Hilary Wood said...

Great blog site and well done with the photos I bet Anna's pleased especially after her race in Denmark last year. It's looking good for the finals for Hanny and Anna.
Good luck to Jo and the others for the middle qual tomorrow. Live feed was no good for us tonight...ended up coming via moscompass via ru!
Hopefully it will work tomoz.Drink lots its going to be hot!

Anonymous said...

congrats anna and hanny! we ( the anderson's) be cheering you on for the long final!!!

Hilary Wood said...

Well done again to the girls Jo, Hanny and Grace. Fantastic qualifying run Julian! Remember to run hard in the finish shute in the final! Its hard to follow live.... intermittent audio and behind real time! Slow with online results too.JWOC was much better I believe!I believe we're in with a good chance of a couple of outstanding results from a few people in the team! Keep up the good effort. Enjoy the rest day!

Unknown said...

Congrats Anna and Hanny. Top effort. Best of luck to you both in the final and also to everyone running the middle qualifiers.