EOC Results: Long qualification

Today the qualificiation races for the long distance were planned. Once again the runners were seperated in 3 heats with the top 17 from in each class going through to the finals. The men's race was 10,9 km and the women's race: 6,6km. Below you can see the results:

Men Heat 1:
1. Merz, Matthias SUI 55:17 + 00:00
2. Rollier, Baptiste SUI 55:26 + 00:09
3. Weltzien, Audun Hultgreen NOR 55:43 + 00:26
4. Wingstedt, Emil SWE 56:01 + 00:44
5. Stevenson, Jamie GBR 56:15 + 00:58

A lot of runners (like Merz) had some problems on their way to the second control in the technical dunesarea. Baptiste Rollier (known as technically very strong) was in the lead nearly the whole race. But at the finish Matthias Merz had the best time.

Heat 2:
1. Ohlund, Erik SWE 55:22 + 00:00
2. Nordberg, Anders NOR 56:26 + 01:04
3. Troeng, Mats SWE 56:28 + 01:06
4. Lakanen, Jani FIN 56:56 + 01:34
5. Lucan, Vladimir CZE 57:02 + 01:40
20. Pasquasy, Fabien BEL 59:58 + 04:36

Scandinavia on top in this heat. Erik Ohlund was clearly the strongest runner today in this class. Mats Troeng and Edgards Bertuks were in fight for the 2nd place, but both of them made a mistake in the end. In this strong heat Matthias Muller (because of several little mistakes) and Scott Fraser (4th place yesterday) weren't able to qualify. Also Yuri Omeltchenko, who has won several medals in previous European championships, wil not run compete for the medals in the tomorrow's final.
Fabien Pasquasy run 50 seconds too slow to reach the A-final. In the beginning he had some problems (like many other runners) and made mistakes. In the second part of his race (catched up by Mats Haldin) he run very strong.

Heat 3:
1. Ikonen, Pasi FIN 54:51 + 00:00
2. Hubmann, Daniel SUI 55:48 + 00:57
3. Johansson, Martin Per SWE 55:58 + 01:07
4. Lundanes, Olav NOR 56:27 + 01:36
5. Wickholm,J orgen FIN 56:47 + 01:56
33. Delobel, Bart BEL 1:07:56 + 13:05

Pasi Ikonen (see picture) is clearly in a very good shape. He run the strongest time of all the male runners. He won with a margin of 1 minute. Daniel Hubman became 2nd and Martin Johansson 3th. The only Norwegian runner who didn't reach the A-final is Hans Troan, he became 20th in this heat.
Bart Delobel lost already 3 minutes on his way to the 1st control. At the end he was nearly 8 minutes too slow to reach the A-final.

Women: Heat 1:
1. Hausken,Anne Margrethe NOR 42:24 + 00:00
2. Persson,Lina SWE 42:51 + 00:27
3. Brozkova,Dana CZE 43:55 + 01:31
4. Jukkola,Heli FIN 43:57 + 01:33
5. Novikova,Yulia RUS 44:28 + 02:04

Anne Margrethe Hausken has no difficulties with the difference in the distance. Once again the run very strong and won her heat. She even made a mistake at the end, but because of her strong start, she was still the best. The Swedish runner Lina Persson became 2nd today.

Heat 2:
1. Engstrand,Emma SWE 41:05 + 00:00
2. Weltzien,Ingunn Hultgreen NOR 42:35 + 01:30
3. Korzhova,Natalia RUS 44:17 + 03:12
4. Riddervold,Marianne NOR 44:20 + 03:15
5. Rantala,Maria FIN 44:25 + 03:20
27. Mulpas,Vinciane BEL 1:02:18 + 21:13

Emma Engstrand and Ingunn Weltzien obvious had the fastest speed during the race. The difference between these 2 runners was that Emma Engstrand managed to run nearly without mistakes (only the 9th control). Ingunn made 2 mistakes in a row (control 8 and 9). Helen Bridle made a big mistake to the 10th control and became 21th.
Vinciane Mulpas run 12 minutes too slow to reach the A-final. In the beginning she didn't make really big mistakes and in the middle of the race she was still in 22nd position. But at the end of the race she had more difficulties and lost more time.

Heat 3:
1 Soes,Signe DEN 40:16 + 00:00
2 Ryabkina,Tatiana RUS 40:23 + 00:07
3 Johansson,Sofie SWE 40:58 + 00:42
4 Brozkova,Radka CZE 42:06 + 01:50
5 Dodin,Celine FRA 42:21 + 02:05
28. Bastin,Veronique BEL 55:12 + 14:56

Signe Soes run the best time in women's class. The young Danish runner (25 years old) was 7 seconds faster than the experienced Tatiana Ryabkina. Also Sofie Johansson run a strong race. In this heat Ines Brodman made a 5 minutes mistake on her way to the 2nd control. She didn't succeed to qualify and became 18th, 40 seconds too slow.
Veronique Bastin didn't reach the A-final. She was 9 minutes too slow at the finish (compared with the 17th position).

Remarkable: Valentin Novikov, Francois Gonon and Minna Kauppi weren't present at the start.
Tomorrow the long distance A and B final will take place in Irbene (the men race will be 17km).

Results
Worldofo article
Map Men (Alessio Tenani)
Map Women (Kirti Rebane)