Nathan Lawson, photo: Eszter Kocsik
The first races of this year's European Champs (incorporating World Cup Round 3) proved a tough day out for the British Team. It was the qualification races for the middle distance, and only two of the twelve British runners, Grace Molloy and Fiona Bunn, managed to get through to tomorrow's final. Bad luck to Jo Shepherd and Chloe Potter who were just a place or two shy of making it.
Also bad luck to Jakub Chupek of Slovakia, 21st in heat 3 with a non-European ahead of him (Tim Robertson of New Zealand was 3rd in that heat.)
Warm and Tough
As predicted it was warm and tough. For men and women there were three parallel heats, with the top 20 in each qualifying for tomorrow's finals. Target winning times were 25 minutes, with the men having 4.5km with 180m of climb, and the women 3.9km with 145m of climb.
And it was fast: 8 women ran under 25 minutes. And the men were even faster relative to expectations: in heat 2 there were runners under 25 minutes who didn't qualify (Jonny Crickmore ran 25:09)!
GB Runners
Runners with position in their heat
GB Women: Grace Molloy (12), Fiona Bunn (19), Jo Shepherd (21), Chloe Potter (22), Cecilie Andersen (30), Lucy Walker (36).
Lucy Walker, photo: Eszter Kocsik
GB Men: Alastair Thomas (22), Jonny Crickmore (25), Nathan Lawson (26), Luke Fisher (27), Peter Bray (33), Peter Molloy (36).
Peter Molloy wrote on his Attackpoint:
"To control 9 I was still with Timo Suter and (Eskil) Kinneberg (my same minute men) who both ended up making it, unlike me... ... but when it’s not so tricky I just can’t afford any time loss at this level."
Tomorrow's Final
First start is 12:20 Uk-time. The IOF TV Broadcast begins at 13:20 UK-time.
Number of qualifications by country
You could say that the national teams can be split into the eight who got runners through in fair numbers, and the rest.
- 19 - Sweden (10+9)
- 16 - Switzerland (8+8)
- 14 - Norway (7+7)
- 12 - Finland (6+6)
- 10 - Czechia (5+5)
- 9 - Hungary (3+6)
- 9 - France (7+2)
- 9 - Denmark (2+7)
- 3 - Austria, Estonia, Latvia
- 2 - GB, Germany, Slovakia
- 1 - Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Italy, New Zealand, Poland, Ukraine.