Relays

The Relays were held yesterday afternoon at Val Canali. The start and finish were in a "meadow" and the courses had two spectator controls and a map change. This made the relays really exciting to watch.

Jourdan and Tom went out first. Both having fairly good runs, just a little bit of the pace.
Kate and Nicola went off for the girls relay teams. Kate came in about mid field and Nicola just a little bit behind.
Toby, in the second boys team, had a really good run, catching up to Scott, which meant that Simon and Andrew went out on leg three about 30 seconds apart. In the girls relay both teams were fairly consistent with each team member having about the same time for their leg.

The map was fast and had a few technical sections. The start was the part of the course that caught most of us out. It was really technical with lots of rocks and contour detail.

The course also had something which hardly anyone had done before and that was that we had a map "change". This meant that when you got to the first spectator control your first side of your map ran out and you ran to a new start triangle and turned over your map and did the rest of your course. The reason for the map change was that we had controls that were on the same part of the map and this made the map less busy and easier to understand.

One thing that we have all found out is that the Italians love long runs to the start triangle, long finish shoots and also long spectator legs. The long spectator leg after the second radio control was the worst. It was a gradual uphill run in an open field and everyone could see you!!

The European teams fought out the top places and the boys race was really close with second place only about 30 seconds behind.
The boys relay was won by Sweden and the top New Zealand team was about midfield - the boys can't remember. In the girls Switzerland won and the top New Zealand girls were 13th.

In the Overall country competition New Zealand ended up 10th - the best that we have ever done!

It has been a good week that has gone by so fast. Well Done to Everyone and thanks to all your support and encouragement during the competition!

Ciao Rachel and Nicola