Hello from Cheboksary!

Well it's just before 2am here in Cheboksary and the World Cup party is over! Unfortunately they ended the fun early by closing the Disco but it has continued on level 3 of Hotel Russia where the Aussie Team is celebrating a successful weekend. I'm a little tired but will just give you a brief account of my race! I competed in the last event of the World Cup on Sunday and finished in 7th after being with the eventual Bronze medallist for the first 12km. I was really happy with my race although I hurt in the last 5km and dropped off the pace. My time was 1.29.27. It was two races in one with four Russians taking off at the gun and having their own race out in front with the rest of us to fight it out. One Russian was DQed and the another in the lead pack did not finish, so that left the eventual Gold and Silver Medallist out in front. Vera Santos (Portugal) walked the race of her life to take bronze in a huge PB! Nat finished 37th in 1.36.32 and was a little disappointed but raced a smart race and was going well until about 12-14km and then she "hit the wall."See all the results at www.iaaf.org Hopefully the selectors will look kindly at my results and now nominate me for the Aussie Olympic Team. Fingers crossed. In 2 hours Nat and I will travel back to Moscow with the other athletes on a Charter Flight (quite an interesting, albeit scary experience on the way here!). We're spending a day and a half in Moscow before I head back to my base in Girona and Nat travels back to Australia. The entire Aussie Team competed extremely well here and I will talk more about that and add some photos when I get some sleep; probably when I arrive back in Girona on Wednesday! Cheers