The sprint day offered a pair of challenging courses for the competitors. There were a number of tricky legs that took the runners from apartment complexes into pockets of forest and pack into mazes of buildings again, and many large mistakes were made.
The best American results were achieved by JWOC rookies, Tori Borish on the women's side, who placed 98th, and Gabe Svobodny on the men's side, who finished 146th. The most impressive North American race of the day was run by another JWOC newcomer, Canadian talent Emily Kemp, who finished in a tie for 38th place, just 1:24 behind the winning time.
It was a tough start to the Championships for a lot of the US racers, as many of them ended up with results below the level they are clearly capable of. One comment that kept recurring is that the amount of detail on the sprint maps was a lot greater than that the runners are used to back home, and also greater than on the sprint maps they had seen here in Sweden over the past week. The terrain really required 100% concentration the entire way through the course, which was particularly difficult given the constant changes of direction and the different terrain types the course kept switching between. It is now time to regroup and get ready to strike back in the middle distance.
More later - time for the opening ceremonies!
2 kommentarer:
Men's sprint map?
too much to ask to see some of the USA team's routes? esp 8-9 for the women.
That looks like a tough sprint.
One good thing about being so inexperienced at these high-level competitions is that you can improve so much from day to day. By the relay you might be able to beat a couple of the European teams!
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