Next up... the Long Distance

Yesterday saw the final of the Sprint Event in the town of Olomouc. Team South Africa were in the crowd watching the race unfold. The weather constantly threatened and we even had a small downpour for about 2 minutes during the men's final. Otherwise the event went off without a hitch, even being broadcast live to 5 countries.

There were quite a few supporters from all corners of Europe cheering on their athletes. Here's a Czech statue about to take exception with the raucous Italians fans...



Monday was taken up with a final training run on the Model map for Tuesday's Long Qualification. Althogh it was momentarily dry, it had rained overnight, leaving the forest branches very wet. Paul drew his route on his map afterwards of where he thinks he was...



To cheer him up, we went shopping on the way home. He was told he could only have 1 can of beer today...



Anyway, Nicholas, Garry and Paul will be running the Long Qualie for S.A. tomorrow. Their start times are:

Paul - 09h44
Garry - 10h12
Nicholas - 10h20

They're all good start times, not too early, nor too far back in the field. Each of the 3 heats will be about 10.9km in length, with 20 or 21 controls and 400-410m of climb.