Nicholas Mulder came off best of the South Africans, finishing in 26th place in Heat B in a time of 32:11. In so doing, he improved on his best Middle performance of 27th, which he posted in WOC 2007 Ukraine. Although he avoided any big mistakes on the course, Nicholas was initially unhappy with his run, which was described as 'scrappy' and without confidence. The results placing was thus a bit of a surprise and highlighted the importance of avoiding big mistakes in this low visibility terrain.
Pic: Nicholas' map and route of the Middle Distance Qualification
Jeremy Green's race got off to a nightmare start, when he immediately lost 25 minutes on the first control. In the end, his GPS logger shows that he passed within a short distance of the control on numerous occassions to no avail, logging 2.5km on a leg of just 350m. (Ed: I'll try to get Jeremy to hand over his GPS map data. Emphasis on 'try'). He had a further mistake on the course of approximately 5 minutes, but thereafter settled down in a good pace, finishing well off the field in 1:05:58. However, he did manage to put 2 runners behind him who were disqualified. As mentioned yesterday, this still allowed him to improve on his overall best placing in the middle from 38th to 32nd!
Middle Distance Results and Splits
There were numerous upsets on both the B (Nicholas') and C (Jeremy's) Heats, with some big names not making the 15 place cut for the final. It seems like the early part of the course, which took runners through light green forest took its toll, with big mistakes recorded throughout the field.
Pic: Jeremy Green (photo by Jan Kocbach - World of O')
The Middle Final will take place on Friday. In the meantime however, the focus moves on to tomorrow afternoon's Long Distance qualifier, which will be held on an adjoining map. Jeremy is off at 16h24 and Nicholas at 17h00. The terrain is expected to be slightly faster in running speed, with larger marshes and better visibility. Some light rain is also forecast in the early afternoon (again).
You can follow the proceedings LIVE as it happens at the WOC Live website. The interesting part is that all the men will be wearing tracking devices that will allow everyone too see their location and route on the map LIVE. This should add an extra dimension of pressure for the South African runners (Jeremy has already started thinking that his ankle feels a bit sore).
Footnote: In other news, the first stage of the WOC Tour took place today. Kirsty Green had her first taste of the Norwegian marshes right at the start, with the start control sited right in the centre of one! However, she had it easy compared to one Ladies elite runner (obviously not a Norwegian) who had one of the first start times with her. The elite runner set off at pace through the marsh, running straight onto a circular brown patch that looked like dried mud. Kirsty was kind enough to stop and lend assistance when she promptly went up to her waist in thick muddy marsh. I'm sure she was also kind enough not to smile too much.
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