The Australian girls produced some brilliant results in the sprint at the World University Championships yesterday with three making the top 30.   South Australian Lauren Gillis, a newcomer to the international stage, displayed not only her speed but her fitness too. Lauren backed up after almost a two hour effort the day before in the long, to place a tremendous 13^th .  Rachel Effeney’s 15^th was also a top result, especially as she lost a minute at a mid race control. Bridget Anderson produced her best ever international result with 30th despite injuring her back the day before.

It was a Swiss trifecta in the men’s event, with the same names to feature at WOC in several weeks on home soil.  Victorian Aaron Breed also put the disappointment of a long DNF behind him to do better in the sprint.  Kiwi Toby Scott ran brilliantly for 17th in the large men’s field.    The courses featured an urban area but with some steep slopes.  The women did 2.25km with 17 controls, and the men had 2.8km with 19 controls.

The course saw the runners starting near the top of castle Santa Barbara in Alicante. They were led from the pre start to the side of the castle where they started in the middle of the old town. The first controls of the course caused much confusion and many a time you had to stop to plan your next leg. Was technically and physically hard and included about 400 stairs.

1          17.47    Iveta Duchová,              Czech

2          18.38    Julia Gross                   Swiss

3          18.43    Ivana Bochenková         Czech

12         19.58    Greta Knarston              NZ

13         20.20    Lauren Gillis               

15         20.31    Rachel Effeney

18         20.41    Angela Simpson            NZ

30         21.47    Bridget Anderson

47         23.21    Gergia Whitla                NZ

57         24.54    Laurina Neumann

65         26.47    Imogen Scott                NZ

78 starters

1          17.53    Martin Hubmann            Swiss

2          18.12    Raffael Huber                Swiss

3          18.20    Andreas Kyburz             Swiss

17        20.11   Toby Scott                      NZ

62        22.44    Gene Beveridge            NZ

63       22.52    Jourdan Harvey             NZ

67       23.08    Aaaron Breed              

78        24.40    Murray Scown

81        25.16    Oliver Crosato

86        25.54    Matt Parton

91        27.38    Simon Jager                 NZ

 101 starters

The middle courses start in the morning, which will be about 4.30pm Thursday in Australia.  According to the bulletin the courses feature:

 “Great slopes.  The vegetation consists of low Mediterranean pine which makes the way of progress difficult.  It is an area with large rocks, but we have just drawn those are greater than a meter.  30% of the forest in map is open and crossed by several rent ravines.”