MTB Orienteering race (World Champs) 1:11:58 [4] **** 25.0 km (2:53 / km)
ahr:151 max:164
Middle Distance. 64th of 99. Hilly but set better than the Long Q. The hardest was number 1, and despite stopping at the start triangle I didn’t make the right choice, losing about 2 minutes with the 87th fastest time. On number 2 I had the 94th fastest split – this wasn’t looking good. However it was all (mostly) downhill from there and despite losing another 2 minutes on a dud route choice and a minute at the last in a complex track area I managed 64th with 71.58. I was happy with that, and particularly with the Spanish team for turning up as I finished ahead of all 6 of them. Other scalps were all the Slovenians, Japanese, Latvians and Israelis. The if only situation would have had me on 66 minutes and that would have been good enough for 52nd, beating my previous best at a World Championships (57th in 1979). Mark pulled out a 10th fastest split on number 15 and finished a respectable 80th, one place ahead of the Brazilian, and in time for the ASDA drug test.
