Sprint Race - Tania has great run

We've just returned from the World Games Sprint Race Final, which was held at the Museum of Fine Art in Kaosiung, Taiwan. As predicted it was hot and muggy (imagine trying to do a sprint race around Saint Lucia KZN in the middle of January!), although in reality it was probably a fraction more comfortable than the last two days.

Russia (Andrey Khramov) and Finland (Minna Kauppi) were the unsurprising winners of the race, although Khramov had a tough challenge from Switzerland's Daniel Hubmann, winning by only 1.6 seconds.

From a South African perspective though, it was Tania Wimberley who had a great run in the Ladies category, finishing with a time of 20:20 (6:07 behind the winner) to place 31st out of 36 competitors. This was a great effort that put athletes from Lithuania, Estonia, Canada and Slovakia behind her. Despite this, she still feels that she could easily find 2 or more minutes of mistakes on her part.

In the Men's race, Nicholas Mulder finished in a time of 17:24 (winner was 13:11) to put him 34th out of the field of 36 runners. As per Tania, there were probably about 1:10 worth of mistakes that could have seen a slightly higher position on the leaderboard.

Overall, this is a fair result for Team South Africa given the higher level of competition here then your regular World Champs. With fewer nations represented in the Orienteering at the World Games than in other World events, it is very tough to move away from the bottom of the field.

Tomorrow (Saturday) we have our second and final opportunity to impress with a good result when the Middle Distance takes place in the afternoon. The venue is Chengcing Lake, on the east side of Kaosiung. The weather should once again be very warm and humid, but the slightly longer distances could start proving difficult for some athletes in those given conditions. Starts are from 12h30 local time (or 06h30 S.A. time).

On Sunday is the Team Relay event, but unforunately South Africa doesn't have the 2 men and 2 women needed to enter a team.

(Sorry, no photos today, will get some more up tomorrow!)