Irelands WOC adventure in Norway drew to a close today at the Granasen Ski-jumping arena near Trondheim with the excitement of the team Relay.
The womens race was a very tense affair with the 3 Scandinavian nations of Finland, Norway and Sweden all entering the arena together at the end of the 3rd leg. It was however the Finish runner Minna Kauppi who sprinted to glory and her second gold of the week.
The Irish womens team where lead off by Rosalind Hussey who had a steady run handing over to Ciara Largey in 27th place not far off a gaggle of nations. Ciara had a super run gaining 3 places and handing over to Long distance heroine Niamh O’Boyle in 24th. Niamh ran another solid race bringing Ireland home in a creditable 24th overall in a time of 2 hours 43.53 mins just behind Spain and Italy and ahead of New Zealand, Romania, Japan and Brazil.
The Mens race was no less dramatic with French star Thierry Gueorgiou squandering a certain team medal by missing the 17th control en-route to the arena. It was left to Russia, Norway and Switzerland to fight for the medals. The Russians upsetting the home fans with victory, Norway second and the Swiss third.
David Healy was running his second big race in two days for Ireland and handed over to Andrew Quin in 28th place. Having just missed out on a place in the middle final earlier in the week Andrew Quin was looking for a fast time on the second leg of the relay. He had a great run catching five other runners and handing over to double finalist Nicolas Simonin in 23rd place. Nick had another solid race (his fifth of the week) bringing the Ireland team back in 23rd place overall in a time of 2 hours 38.35 mins ahead of the very strong relay teams of Spain and Belgium and also beating Brazil, Canada, USA, Japan and China.
What a great way to round off a great week for the Irish team and their supporters – though its not over yet for the team, they still have the challenge of the end-of-WOC-banquet tonight!
Full Relay results here
