Map (Heat 1 qualification) here
11 July 2009: Nick shares his experience of the middle distance
Nick's account of his middle distance 'A' final run (open map to see the controls)
Today the middle final took place in San Martino. We where expecting a course that would challenge our technical abilities and also our physical. That's exactly what we got. Like yesterday we started well above the finish.
My plan was to start off like yesterday's qualification race: steady and sure. Then see how much I could push towards the middle and end of the course. It didnt happen like that at all. I missed about 3:30min on the first 5 controls, meaning that any chances of me bettering my place yesterday was gone. As you can see on the map the first few controls needed a lot of control and discipline on the tricky Italian slopes. I had however caught a Frenchman who started 4 min ahead of me by the 3rd but was also caught by another Frenchman 2 min after me at the 4th.
At the 5th control I refocused and decided to take a easy route over the open area to the 6th and drop down. I ran clean enough until the spectator(13th).
Running down the hill I could hear "Danny Boy" being sung by a wannabe Irish group (the New Zealand team) which lifted my spirits . We then had a very technical loop at the end (see map extract, left). My plan was to put the foot down from the 11th until the 13th and then apply the hand brake at the end and not loose to much time by making mistakes in the rocky area. However I nearly mucked it all up by going to the 17th control instead of the 14th after the spectator. I quickly realised my mistake in the large depression east of the line between 13 and 14, loosing only 20sec. I had a clean run from then until the end of the course.
I was disappointed by my bad start and knew I had not done myself justice but soon came around and looked at the positives. It was however nice to be back in the show piece event of the Jwoc middle final day. The terrain and course was really nice and well set up for the 1000 or so spectators to look at the best juniors in the world in action.
As for the other guys Ruairi did the best placing 3rd in the C final only 40 sec behind first, showing us more of what we are used to from him.Kev didn't have the best of runs but did manage to better Niall by 3sec. Niall recovered well after a 8min mistake at the 1st control.
Later today we are running in the final event of Jwoc: the relay. This starts at about 13:30 Irish time. I will be heading out first followed by Kev on second leg and Ruairi on last leg. We are all feeling good and looking forward to causing a mini upset in the results. Watch this space.
Finally as this is my final event for Ireland as a junior I would like to thank all of you who are involved in helping the junior squad in whatever way that maybe. But most importantly I would like to thank Ruth for all the work she does with us though out the year. In the few years I have been involved in the junior squad I have seen huge changes and watched Ireland move up the results at international events. This doesn't happen overnight and hope to see it continue over the years to come (Nick out!).
Results:
A final, 4.1km, 190m climb
1. Olli-Markus Taivainen, Finland 26:21
2. Philipp Sauter, Switzerland 27:00
3. Ulf Forseth Indgaard, Norway 27:39
44. Nick Simonin 34:37
C final, 2.8km, 100m climb
1. Elena Nabil Abderramen, Spain 19:44
2. Vasili Straltsou, Belorussia 19:49
3. Ruairi Short 20.26
33. Kevin O'Boyle 28:25
34. Niall Ewen 28:28
10 July: Middle Distance qualification: Ruairi reports
Today the JWOC middle qualification race was held beside the town of San Martino di Castrozza. With only the top 20 from each heat qualifying for the A final, the competition was always going to be tough. The map was once again quite technical with contouring and height judgment being important but the forest was really nice to run in with high speeds possible especially because of the large amounts of downhill in the course!
Kevin had the early start but he tried to put the early morning rising behind. He ran well in the beginning of the course with only a small miss but then two big mistakes nearer the end cost him time and in finished in 36 minutes. Niall was second of the Irish out but again he wasn't happy with his running, losing almost 11 minutes before control 3 and then finishing the course cleanly with a time of 47. I had a similar race to Niall missing about 6 minutes on the second control but being clean on the whole rest of the course and finishing in 38 minutes.Nick was then left as the big hope and he delivered, making it into the A final with a good run, only a small miss near the end costing him time. When he came in he was in 6th and the commentator exclaimed that it was a surprise to see an Irish guy making the final which wasn't appreciated by us.This left myself, Kevin and Niall waiting to see whether we would make the B final but as time passed we slowly slipped down the results with Kevin only missing the B by 11 seconds!So tomorrow, after we run early in the C final and try to make amends for today we'll all be cheering for Nick and watching what should be an exciting final (Ruairi Short, photographed left)09 July: Middle Distance final: start times for the final, on Friday 10th July, are online. The athletes will start in reverse order to the positions that they finished in today, so the winners of the heats will go out last.
Irish team start times (all times Italian):
A final, 4.1km, 190m climb, 19 controls
Nick Simonin (pictured left) 11:21
C final, 2.8km, 100m climb, 11 controls
Niall Ewen 9:09
Ruairi Short 9:31
Kevin O'Boyle 9:52
There will be live results from the organiser's website, www.jwoc2009.it and there is a live blog on www.worldofo.com
09 July: Middle Distance qualification: NICK INTO A-FINAL
Nick had a great race to qualify easily for the A-final, beating the JWOC sprint silver medallist in the process. The other 3 boys will contest Friday's C-final. Unluckiest of all was Kevin, who missed out on the B-final by 1 place (11 seconds).
See map for heat 1 here
See full results here
Results:Men's heat 11. Martin Hubmann 26:2055. Niall Ewen 49:13(time to beat to qualifiy for A-final: 31:39)Men's heat 21. Matej Klusacek 26:1741. Kevin O'Boyle 36:1648. Ruairi Short 38:36
(time to beat to qualifiy for A-final: 30:52)
Men's heat 3
1. Matthias Kyburz 26:43
11. Nick Simonin 29:52
(time to beat to qualifiy for A-final: 30:55)
08 July: Middle Distance qualification on Thursday 9th July
The middle distance qualification in San Martino will be fast and furious, with a 20 minute estimated winning time for the 4.4km men's race. There are 3 heats, with the top 20 in each heat progressing to Friday's A final, the next 20 in each heat to the B final, and the remainder to the C final.
Irish start times (all times Italian)
Kevin O'Boyle 9:26
Niall Ewen 9:38
Ruairi Short 9:48
Nick Simonin 10:32