Sprint Day!

Today was the Sprint Qual and Sprint Final. It was held in a forested area to the west of Miskolc. As the pre start closed at 0900 it resulted in all runners having an early morning. The men’s race went off first with the start in the assembly area. Shane Lynch was the first starter of the Irish. Shane was happy with his run in heat A. He finished in a time of 18:11.0 in 29^th.

Second out of the Irish was Colm Hill. He wasn’t too happy with his run losing 1:30min after the spectator control. Even without this mistake he was still off the pace finishing in 19:37.0, 26^th.

The run of the day was with Nick Simonin. He raced a strong race in heat C. One costly 30sec mistake saw him miss a place in the final by 4seconds. He crossed the line in 16:22.0, 16^th.

Tomorrow morning is the relay. The Irish Team is David Healy on first leg, Nick Simonin on 2 and Neil Dobbs running anchor. It kicks off at 10.00am irish time!

In the womens race, Ciara was the first of the girls to hit the forest. “Some small mistakes but nothing major. I was probably too cautious in the forest which cost time as well but I enjoyed it. Looking forward to the relay tomorrow.”

With Ciara in, the team waited for Roz to enter the open area with the last few technical controls. As she entered the open ground she was flooring it, racing head to head against two other girls. It was confirmed after when her last 4 splits were all top 10. Although all was not as it seemed according to Roz after her race, "Today I had the legs for the sprint, but not the head. The large scale in the forest kind of messes with your mind. Had 2 controls where I stood about confused for a bit before realising what was happening! Those were 2 pretty costly controls when the pace was so fast. Should have easily saved 6min."

The Irish relay team tomorrow is Ciara Largey, Aislinn Austin with Rosalind Hussey bringing the team home. The girls hit the forest at 13:45 once the guys have made the tracks ;)

Colm out