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Sasha 7th At JWOC As British Juniors Have A Strong Day In The Finnish Forest

The middle distance final today saw another fiercely fought race in another physically and technically demanding area in the Finnish forest of Viitapohja. Five British runners ran the A race, with Fiona Bunn, unfortunately, choosing to not compete, due to illness.

The highlight of the day came from Sasha Chepelin, who limited time losses in the tricky first section and made next to no errors in the second half while running at high speed, completing the section after the spectator run-through quicker than the eventual clear winner, Olli Ojanaho. Sasha was rewarded with an impressive 7th place but was excruciatingly just 2 seconds behind 5th and 1 second off a podium.

Sasha 7th

Meanwhile, Alex Carcas used his flat speed to great effect by taking a good path route choice on the long leg and finished in 30th place in his first JWOC. Harrison McCartney was let down in the first half of the race by some mistakes in tricky areas, but will, alongside Fiona, be looking to put in a good performance in the Long on Friday.

There were 2 top 25's out of 2 in the Women’s A final, with Jenny Ricketts navigating accurately and running hard through the terrain to take 24th position in a strong field. Grace Molloy backed up her 4th place in her qualifying heat, delivering an outstanding performance, despite a few errors, to finish in 19th place. This secures her first top 20 in her first JWOC final, even though, as a bottom year W18, she is the youngest member of the team and still has 3 more JWOCs left.

Full results are available here

Tomorrow is the sprint race, which should be fast and furious in the hilly area of Pispala. Follow the team live from 08:00 BST using the JWOC 2017 website.

Credit - David Bunn

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