Technical, technical, technical

If we found the long long, the middle was intense. We were expecting fast, tricky orienteering on the open bare rock hilltops with good visibility. Instead we had fast, tricky orienteering through patches of green, varying visibility and complex contour detail.

The boys were out first today. Ruairi was the first of us out and first back, with Dave close on his heels. Despite the lack of sunshine the shamrock came out of hiding...

Ruairi had another solid run in his Senior international debut. He caught two minutes on a Swede by the second control, and was still ahead three controls later. Dave was better but still a little dissatisfied with his performance.

In his first World Cup race, Colm got a bit dazzled by the cameras and took an original route to the second control.

On the way to the second quarantine zone, we had to get off the bus a kilometre early and walk, because the Swedish team bus was blocking the dirt road, with half the bus in the ditch. It put us in good spirits :)

I was out last of our guys and came in very happy (for once!) with my run. Perfection isn't possible (for mortals) in this terrain, but I only made a couple of very minor mistakes and was pushing hard all the way to the end. My finish position belies the strength of the field... and my lack of speed.

As we were eating lunch, Ros and Niamh were still in quarantine drawing pictures. After using up all the crayons in the primary school, they eventually made it to the competition and headed out into the beautiful terrain.

Ros was "navigating quite well when I was on my own" and was a little frustrated with herself for not doing better. She looked strong at the spectator control and running in to the finish:

Niamh ran very well and was happier than after the long distance. While many packs formed in the women's race (the seven with Simone N-L wasn't the biggest!), Niamh ran most of the race on her own. A little more experience in this terrain (it's her first time in Finland), and she will be a force to be reckoned with.

Tomorrow is the sprint. Quarantine is 9am, so breakfast will be early!