WC Middle and Sprint

After a relaxing rest day the middle distance was on the program. For 3 first year juniors this was definitely a very exciting experience! It was not an easy job to fulfill, as the terrain was quite technical and pretty tough to run in. 5,4,3,2,1, biiiiip my race started and I would lie if I would tell you that I was as relaxed as I would have liked to be. The first control was good but I realized that I was more focused on my running and thinking how Hubmann would cross this green area, than my orienteering. I built up my focus again and was back in my race again. The first 3 controls went really good as the GPS tracks showed after the race. To number four I lost the direction from the control and came too much to the right. This small mistake and a little swing in the control area costed me 40 seconds. To number 9 I should have climbed up the hill at the beginning which costed another 40 seconds. The rest of the race was without bigger mistakes but at the last hill my legs couldn’t run as fast as my mind wanted them to and I lost a bit too much on this last loop. I’m really happy with my race but the result was a bit disappointing. I was really not expecting any “good” result as thought I knew how fast those guys can run but having a good run and losing 11 minutes on Öberg was quite a shock! Damn it they run fast!! Wolfi finished after a good last loop 40 seconds before me and Warti was about 1 minute behind me.

Feeling really tired after the middle distance I was quite unsure how the sprint would go. Warti and me started at the same time which was a good possibility to check my speed during the race. I had a good start and after 4 controls my legs were still feeling good. On the long route-choice I decided to cross the hill and lost a bit too much there. Somehow I was always behind with my orienteering and at the end of the course I made some more really stupid mistakes. The result was really unacceptably bad and I hope I can improve my sprint skills before next weeks ÖM. Wolfi had a good run and finished 44 seconds from the cut in his heat. Warti had similar problems like me and wasn’t satisfied with his race. Well what can I say, it was a bad day but for my part it was much more a mental problem as I started this race without a clear plan or goal which was simply unprofessional for a WC race, this won’t happen again.

Now we are sitting in a nice cottage at the camping place 5km from the Jukola CC and on Saturday/Sunday we will try to fight for every position at Jukola with Warti on the last leg and me on the 4^th. Kiitos for reading!