Run race ((orienteering)) 17:28 [4] *** 2.7 km (6:28 / km) +75m 5:41 / km
spiked:21/24c
Almost but not quite. Before the start of this week I would not have considered a sprint medal to be a realistic possibility, but the qualifiers gave me some cause for believing that it might happen if things went well today.
Things did go well today. It was a more varied course today (part new town, part old town, part dunes), although perhaps not quite as good as that of yesterday. (As I suspected, the choice of areas was dictated by a city centre not being usable midweek and a beach resort not being usable on Sunday). I've sometimes struggled to reach a peak of mental intensity for races in recent years but felt as if I really had it today, with just the right amount of nerves to think this was really important, and this seemed to flow through into my running speed. The navigation wasn't bad either, with nothing bigger than 5 to 10 seconds (which didn't ultimately make any difference to the result). I started with Jim and ran with him for a largely common stretch in midcourse, then was near the Czech M35 who I'd caught a minute for most of the remainder.
I was fourth when I finished, which was a little disappointing, thinking that I would drop a few places with five still to come. I thought I might get one or two of them, but as it turned out I got all five and held onto fourth place. It's a little frustrating being only one place away from a medal, but only a little, and I never would have expected this result in a sprint. It's certainly a very encouraging sign for the long distance, especially as I now know there is nobody in this field who I can't beat, as I've been ahead of everyone else in the field at least once out of the two days. Just have to beat them all on the same day now. (The field is not especially strong, with only two other former WOC runners present that I can see, both with records as mediocre as mine, but you can only beat the ones who turn up).
It was a pretty good day for Australia with a silver (Tash), three bronzes (Warren, Jeffa and Hermann), and Jim and I were both fourth.
The organisers first called Hermann an Austrian and then a New Zealander, but that may just be revenge against Australia for inflicting so much crappy reality TV upon the Portuguese. I certainly didn't expect to see the Penrith Police Station featuring prominently on the box here. There was also a sketch comedy show courtesy of Aranda Primary`s most famous old boy (Mick Molloy) which was quite funny but will have gone straight over the heads of the locals, who have presumably never heard of Nikki Webster, Derryn Hinch, Delta Goodrem or Rove McManus. I also noted that the subtitlers didn`t even attempt to translate someone`s line about making life easy for burglars that `you might as well give him a pick, a shovel and a map of Belanglo State Forest`.
(When it comes to local productions, it appears that Joe Hockey has a new job hosting the Portuguese version of `The Price is Right`).