WOC middle distance qualification
The WOC middle distance qualifications were held this afternoon at Bois Rond, St. George. The winning times were much longer than the estimated 26 mins, but all of the big favourites including French superstar Thierry Gueorgiou qualified for the final. Unfortunately none of the Irish progressed. Colm Hill had the best run, just over 5 minutes from qualifying.
Irish results
Men A
1. Thierry Gueorgiou 29.16
23. Colm Hill 40.31
Men B
1. Gernot Kerschbaumer 30.34
32. Darren Burke 45.09
Men C.
1. Carl Waaler Kaas 29.21
27. Ruairi Short 41.48
Women A
1. Tatyana Riabkina 33.51
25. Rosalind Hussey 59.40
Women B
1. Tove Alexandersson 30.38
24. Ciara Largey 51.22
Women C
1. Simone Niggli 31.58
The middle final takes place tomorrow at La Givrine, with the men facing 6.5km and the women 5.5km. The next Irish involvement at WOC will be Nicolas Simonin running on Thursday in the long distance final at La Jorat. Nick is the first starter at 11:02 (Irish time) so is assured plenty of coverage (start list here). The course is 18.3km with an estimated winning time of 96 minutes. Good luck Nick!
Full results, splittimes and maps can be found at the WOC2012 website.