World of O News
Audun Weltzien won a tight Norwegian Champs long distance in Tromsø today performing very good in the last difficult part of the race. Second was Anders Nordberg – third Lars Skjeset. In the womens class Marianne Andersen caught Anne Margrethe Hausken with 2 minutes about 1.5 kilometers before the finish – giving Andersen the gold medal ahead of Andersen.
The scenery was fantastic – so was the terrain. The first part of both the men and women course was relatively easy – to a large degree in open areas above the tree level – some said the largest challenge was to concentrate on the map instead of on the magnificent view. The last 15 minutes of running was completely different (see map extract to the right – courtesy of Øystein Kvaal Østerbø). A very detailed terrain with lots of cliffs – quite difficult to read in full speed in 1:15.000. This was also the part where the mens class was decided.
Hubmann best guest
There was special interest from foreign top runners for the Norwegian Champs this year – partly due to WOC in Trondheim in 2010, and partly due to the marvelous nature and interesting orienteering areas high up in the North of Norway. However, world stars Hubmann, Gueorgiou and Gonon did not manage to give the best Norwegians a real fight for the top time – Hubmann coming closest with a time 5 minutes behind the winner Audun Weltzien. Gueorgiou was one minute behind Hubmann – but was tired after two hard weeks of orienteering in Northern Norway. – I was very tired today, but it was very nice to run here, Gueorgiou said after his raace.
When comparing todays area to the O-ringen “Fjäll”-terrain which has been given so much praise, there is not really much to compare. The terrain was much more runnable here, and the views from most of the course was more impressive than you would imagine from the pictures…
Tomorrow the championships continutes with long distance for juniors and middle qualification for elite.
