Did anyone else notice Aston Key had an 8 minute split between the 1st and 2nd radio controls (2.2km and 5.6km) jumping 69 places? At first I thought it must be due to having a shorter butterfly leg, but he was the only runner with such a short split. The next fastest was 17:47 by Bergman, most of the later runners took over 20 minutes.
Is it common to start people from the same nation back-to-back in World Cup events? I see it occurred several times during the middle distance event and you can watch Andrew Barnett's dot get overtaken by Aston's (1.5mins) then they pretty much stick together for most of the rest of the course, although I know it happens also with anyone in these events.
The live results didn't seem to show up any MP's. They still don't have the official results out but the preliminary ones show that Aston MP'd and Rob Bennett got DQ'd for some reason.
My guess is that Aston accidentally (?) skipped one of the loops in the diamond. I noticed that he appeared in the live feed at the next TV control with his #300-bib among runners way above in starting position. At least he must have gotten some high speed training in.
The World Cup Sprint Relay takes place in Helsinki's Senate Square beside the many steps up to the Helsinki Cathedral. Race terrain (streets, alleyways, stairs, etc.) preview courtesy of Darude.
Go Team Canada in the sprint relay today! The team of Emma, Jan Erik, Christian, and Emily will be exciting to watch!! Unfortunately I will be out in the woods mapping for a project that should have been done a while ago so will have to watch the replay.
Well, Karro won the swedish sprint champs over Tove last week, so I think they felt she was the strongest sprinter. Plus she has the killer finishing kick. Also, hope you feel better soon, Graeme!
Didn’t see the race, but in general I wouldn’t trust GPS tracks absolutely in a dense urban environment - certainly not to the point of disqualifying someone without other supporting evidence.
You can see the replay for free. It certainly does look like a lot of people went through the OOB but it also looks like a bunch of people went into the middle of the OOB main road to the west and through buildings, etc.
@graeme - Unusual tactic = not so unusual since that´s how they ran at WOC last year too. Tove is a strong runner but lacks that extra speed (that Karro has) that might be needed in a close sprint finish on the world level.