Middle Qualifier

The Middle Qualifier took place this morning in the forest near the small village of Bükkszentkereszt. The area of the race was fairly small, basically a single hill with some rock features, pits and depressions. Mostly very open forest, but also one larger area of denser woods. As expected there was plenty of side hill navigation. Check out this map showing the 3 courses of the women's heats.

First out was Will Critchley in his first ever orienteering race in Europe! He had a solid race without any bigger mistakes and was happy at the finish. Carol Ross was next out in her WOC debut. She felt good for most of the course, but had one mistake and several smaller bobbles and was not entirely satisfied with the run. Nick Duca had the strongest run of the day, with only some smaller "hooks", leaving him just over 2 minutes outside of the last qualifying time. Louise Oram had a great run except for one major problem, stopping too early on the long leg in the green and losing too much time there. Mike Smith lost a couple of minutes on the first two controls and was not able to get that time back on the rest of the course and also finished outside of the qualifying time.

The team is now resting, getting ready for revenge in tomorrow's Long Qualifier!