World of O News
He looked like the happiest of all the medal winners in Miskolc this August
– I started the WOC sprint qualification with enormous self confidence. The secret behind Fabian Hertner’s self confidence was 3.5 weeks high altitude training camp followed by 3 weeks of training focused fully on the Sprint discipline. Running only the sprint at the World Championships has its advantages.
Fabian Hertner has been in the shadows of the big Swiss stars – Daniel Hubmann and Matthias Merz -for years. He has been showing his very big potential at regular intervals – JWOC gold on middle in 2005, 9th spot in EOC sprint in 2006, several extremely good races at less important occasions – but missing that little something required for the really great performance.
His self confidence brought him all the way to a Silver medal at the World Championships sprint this year – and afterwards he looked like the happiest of all the medal winners in Miskolc this August. One of the spectators put it this way: – I think seeing him when he knew he got a medal was one of the nicest moment I ever saw in orienteering.
Nominated for:
Coming out from the shadows of the big Swiss stars, taking a surprising Silver medal in the World Championships Sprint.
In the middle distance I had especially big ambitions, wanting to qualify for this discipline and the Relay
From good to bad
The fight for a WOC selection is though in the Swiss Team. Thus the WOC selection races are nearly as important as the WOC itself. And it turned out to be a close call for Hertner.
– The selection races started with two forest sprints. In the first, I had some small technical uncertainties (see map). In the second I got a good race (map). I run a good third spot in both races. […] In the middle distance I had especially big ambitions, wanting to qualify for this discipline and the Relay. I made a clean race, maybe 15 seconds mistake. In the finish I thought it would be good enough for a top spot.
However, the results showed a different story for the new Swiss orienteering star.
– 3 minutes behind and a 5th place was a big disappointment for me with such a good race (map). In the long distance my bad shape was confirmed. I run to the finish with nearly 15 minutes up to the winner (map).
Rebuilding confidence
With 6.5 weeks to go until the World Championships Sprint, Hertner had to start building himself up again – both physically and mentally. – The selection races were a disappointment for me, and just now I feel a big emptiness and am unable to explain what has happened, Hertner wrote at his homepage just after the selection races.
In the end, the bad qualification races on Middle and Long might have been a blessing in disguise. Being able to concentrate fully on the Sprint, and building himself up step by step seemed to do the trick for the new Swiss orienteering star!
Timetable: Starting November 25th, nominees for the Orienteering Achievement of 2009 will be presented on a a day-by-day basis at World of O and Ultimate Orienteering. The winner is decided in a vote amongst all the readers of World of O and Ultimate Orienteering after all nominees have been presented between Monday November 30th and Friday December 4th. The winners will be announced December 8th.
Event sponsor: Highlands Open
Highlands Open is a popular event in Northern Italy. The terrain is know to be very varied – from detailed with rocky features to really fast with open forest, some karstic areas, and some full of trenches of the 1° World War. Highlands Open 2010 is organized from August 22nd until August 29th.
- Among the Lucky voters, 2 transferable starts for the complete Highlands Open 2010 will be drawn.
- See Highlands Open webpage for more information about the event
