WOC Long Final

[Mrs H]

Gonon's result seems remarkable the way he was circling round for ages earlier on - splits should be interesting

[EddieH]

Gonon made a big mistake early on and was caught by TG. Ironically had he won his heat he'd have started 3 minutes after TG and presumably not got a medal. However this sort of luck happens and people earn their luck by doing well in qualifying. It seems that they did not stick together all the time anyway.

[King Penguin]

The French men were 1st, 3rd and 7th; the Swiss men 4th, 5th and 8th. Should be an interesting relay

I wonder to what extent it is relevant that the event is close to the border between the two. Not taking anything away from those who managed to master the terrain the best / make the least mistakes but perhaps the French and Swiss have run in this sort of terrain more than others ?

[andypat]

Credit to Helen P for acheiving the best GBR result in the long.

[EddieH]

Yes a very steady run and 23rd in the World is pretty good. It must have been nice to finish first even if she didn't hold the lead for long.

[Spookster]

More pictures from today's race.

[229]

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[graeme]

Nice butterflies. Even seems to have worked.

So, no man ever won middle and long at the same WOC. What's the odds for Tero to do so...and can he find another novel way to lose the relay?

[Becks]

An extra addition to the results today...the Swedish sites are reporting that Billstam and Georgiou are also a couple. Pretty cool.

Them's going to be some pretty good kids.

[ba-ba]

that'll explain why she was training with the French team in the run-up to WOC then!

[Scott]

Martina Zverinova, who ran the 11th-fastest time in the Women's Long, was disqualified for running with a GPS watch. Had she not been disqualified the Czech girls would have been 2nd, 4th, 11th - it looks like being an interesting relay battle between them, the Swedes (five of the six women's medals so far!) and the Finns (6th and 8th today, plus Minna).

[andy]

I bet she doesn't wear her gps watch in the relay! (not sure why she would even consider wearing it, they were all carrying gps devices and can easily get the analysis afterwards?!)

[EddieH]

He did win his heat, as did Adamski and Thierry. But according to the rules you can't have two people from the same country starting next to each other.

I didn't know this. Ironically it meant that all the Frenchmen ran the same gaffle. With the planning the way it was, starting 3 minutes apart and getting together early would not have guaranteed a medal fo the caught runner.

[AndyC]

Irrelevant in the case because of how good he is but "getting together early" would speed up both runners and might make the "catcher" more certain of a medal. A bit like cycling where you sacrifice one rider to ensure that another has a chance of winning.
Martina Zverinova might have "put the watch on" and "start watch" , "record split" etc. so much into her routine that she wouldn't feel comfortable without it. (any evidence that it actually was charged?)

[graeme]

But according to the rules you can't have two people from the same country starting next to each other...

...because if you did they'd be on different gaffles and unable to follow each other ?


http://www.nature.com/news/2001/010913/ ... 13-13.html

Sorry, couldn't resist do I win one of MrsH's pens for sneaking O-references in external publications?