Irina Kalentieva takes the World Champs jersey home! Photo: www.JoolzeDymond.com
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In the women's XC race, Russia's Irina Kalentieva picked up, not just Russia's first medal of the championships, but also her first senior world title in the Women's Elite XC Final. Kalentieva beat 2003 world champion, Sabine Spitz by a margin of over half a minute, with third place going to Chinese Jingjing Wang adding another medal to the Chinese team tally.
Kalentieva said, 'I have been here for World Cups before but it was extra special this year. It was my dream to win the World Championships this year in Scotland. My dreams came true today.'
British interest lay in Jenny Copnall, Ruth McGavigan, and Scalia, with Copnall coming 47th and McGavigan and Scalia finishing in 56th and 62nd respectively.
You can read Joolze Dymond's race report on www.BikeMagic.com
Here is Jenny Copnall's race report...
World Cross Country Championship, Ft William, Scotland, 8th September 2007
Well, it has been a long and difficult road but I finally got to race the World Champs here in Fort William today. I finished 47th in the race, somewhat lower down the field than I had hoped and expected to be, but while my position was forgettable, the experience was quite the opposite, the crowd support being something that I will never forget. Having a three woman team in the race today was also fantastic, and both Ruth and Liz did themselves proud.
After the relay on Tuesday I had high hopes for my individual event. The course here at Ft William has been made smoother and faster, lessening the technical difficulty slightly. At speed things do become more challenging but in the race I would say that the impact that good descending could have was relatively small when compared with the course of previous years. As so often happens, sections that seemed harmless in practise became the most gruelling in the race itself, the “flat” Mackensie's Road seeming to increase in gradient lap by lap.
Our race began as many others had done before - with a crash that blocked the whole trail width. Unfortunately this is where being back on the grid becomes a disadvantage, putting all three GB women on the back foot from the off. Once going again we began to gain places, with Ruth flying up the first climb and UK based Jenn O'Connor (representing New Zealand) having a very strong start. A second major hold up occurred on the second part of the climb and with nowhere to get through we simply had to wait in line for things to clear. This was compounded by the original crash off the start. Finally we made it out onto the top part of the climb and were able to begin to make headway and get back into the race but the time lost on this lap was precious and would have affected my final position.
Having done many practise laps my descending was good in that early lap and this allowed me to make places all the way to the bottom. The crowd support throughout the rock sections was massive. I am used to crowd noise but not so used to so many people shouting my name! I must admit that I found it difficult to focus at times and this led to a silly crash onto a rock at the end of lap one. While it didn't hurt too much at the time, it seems that my kneecap took the force of this one…. it hurts now! After lap one things settled into more usual race mode. I was now the leading Brit and also slipped passed Jenn on the descent (thanks for the help there Jenn!) With my legs not as strong as for the relay, I tried to ride smart, rev well, and ride consistent laps. This allowed me to make some ground on the final lap. I did make a couple of silly errors along the way and this cost me a few seconds here and there. On other sections I found better form and was able to rock on down. I seem to make a habit of sprint finishes, whatever the event, and here I lost out to the Estonian Champ.
Jenny Copnall
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And that is that. Thanks to everyone who supported the cause to get me here. I hope that you all enjoyed seeing the three of us giving it our best shot. Thanks for the support out there. It was both surprising and humbling. Thanks to Phil Dixon, Helen Mortimor and all the British Cycling support crew for your help throughout the week. This race was always going to be loaded with pressure and emotion. In retrospect I think I underestimated just how much the whole experience would affect me. I would have liked to switch off my brain a little during the race but passion is a difficult thing to turn on and off, making the whole day quite an emotional one for me personally. Perhaps it was too much to expect perfect legs on top of that (we athletes expect a lot!) but I am very happy to have raced and to have finished and to have done my best on the day.
Jenny
www.fisherbikes.com
KP_
