The middle qualification was Thursday. The map was “San Martino-Nord” which was a 30min bus ride up the valley of Primiero. The way that the middle qualification works is that there are three people starting together and each of those three people are on one of three courses, which are called heats. Which course you get is completely random. The top 20 from each heat qualify into the A final, the next 20 the B and the rest into the C.
The courses were fast, as the expected wining time was 20mins – meaning that the girls needed to do a km rate of about 6mins and the boys 4.5mins. It was pretty much a downhill course, with minimal climb compared to the step terrain that we were in.
The middle map was much cleaner underfoot than the long and the weather was significantly better too!! The start of the race greeted us with a nice 270m run to the start triangle. The courses had a fast, easy start with a bit of route choice. Then a more technical section in the middle of the course that was around a creek bed. The end of the courses reminded us of home, as it was steep clean pine forest.
The most nerve-racking part of the races was the wait. The wait for the last runners to come in, the wait for the names to move on the board and the wait for the final results.
In the girls, Angela managed to qualify for the A final in 19th position, Kate and Georgia were in heat C and they both also qualified for the A final. Nicola, in heat B, narrowly missed out by about a minute and her, Greta and Rachel made the B final.
In the boys, Tom and Jourdan just missed out on the A final, due to the last few runners knocking them out of the top 20 positions. All the other boys had fairly consistent runs and managed to make the top 40 in their heats. This meant that all the New Zealand boys qualified for the B final.
Good Luck to all those in the A final.
Rachel and Kate
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