Euro Champs: Long distance qualification
Hugh Cashell represented Ireland today in the long qualification in Hökberg. He finished 33rd in 66 mins. Over to Hugh for his thoughts on today’s race:
I was in Heat B today in the long distance qual. After a good warm-up it was off to the pre-start to pick up my GPS. This was the first time I have run with GPS so I didn’t know if I would think about it or not during the race. The answer to that is only once and you can guess where that was if you look at my race (No. 6).
The race started well and I spiked the first control. Direction to 2 was a bit off but I got the control well. This continued till number 6 where I made a big mistake. I cut off the track way too early and then did a pretty little loop and came back to the track 4 mins later and then got the control no problem. I must say that the terrain that was advertised for EOC was all beautiful open forest but didn’t see much of that today. Controls 7, 8 and 9 were all tough going and rough underfoot but I navigated well. Had a little miss at 10 where I matched up stuff that wasn’t there (it happens). Then continued on my way till I confused myself at 14 and had to find 15 first. Then it was push it uphill to the finish.
I was happy enough with my race. Dropped some time but I had some very good parts also. Looking forward to the B final on Friday.
Link to GPS from Men’s heat B: http://www.tulospalvelu.fi/gps/20120515EOCLongMQ-B/
Tomorrow 4 Irish will be competing in the sprint in Falun. David Healy is first off at 8:42, followed by Nick at 8:53, Roz at 9:27 and Niamh at 9:32 (Irish time). There is no GPS tracking tomorrow in the sprint qualification but the maps and live results will be online at http://www.eoc2012.se.