POM Day 2: Maps and Results

The opponents are getting closer, but Simone Niggli and Thierry Gueorgiou were again the fastest at the second day of Portugal O-Meeting 2013. Today was a middle distance race in the same area as Day 1 – again many interesting technical challenges, but less route choices compared to Day 1.

Gueorgiou won with a margin of 5 seconds to team colleague Philippe Adamski with Swede Albin Ridefeldt in third 38 seconds to the Swede Albin Ridefeldt with Hannu Airila (Finland) in third. Niggli also had a margin of around half a minute – with Annika Billstam (Sweden) in second and Catherine Taylor (Great Britain) in third.

• Map men
• Map women

– Not so good

Studying the splits from Day 1, one could observe that Gueorgiou had a magnificent race yesterday. Comparing the “performance index” with the other runners, it is clear that Gueorgiou’s race was at another level with overall performance index of nearly 106% – Olle Boström in second had around 101%.

Too much simplification without checking the compass carefully enough

– My race today was not so good, Gueorgiou said after today’s middle distance. – I think maybe Philippe (Adamski) or Frederic (Tranchand) can beat me today.

In the end Adamski got closest – only 5 seconds behind Gueorgiou – and that even with some mistakes. Tranchand did also a good race, and finished 5th.

Too much

The mistakes today were similar to the mistake the French made at control 6 yesterday. Too much simplification – i.e. looking at big features ahead – without checking the compass carefully enough.

– To control number 11  I aimed at the power pole, and pushed hard up the hill. But it was the wrong power pole (one power poll to the left), and it cost me 45 seconds, Gueorgiou explained.

– My second mistake was to control 17. Again I lost 45 seconds.

Bullfight yesterday – skipped control today

The fastest time today in the men’s class was run by Valentin Novikov (Russia). However, the Russian WOC middle silver medalist from last year had forgotten the 9th control – a control which was close to the line between control 8 and 10 (see map above). Novikov also took the wrong control description – loosing half a minute around the first control – so no good day for the Russian – but still he proves that he can be close when he manages to concentrate fully on the race.

However, his mistake today that is nothing compared to yesterday’s experience.
– Yesterday I fought a bull in the forest – and lost, Novikov explains.

15 minutes mistake

– It suddenly appeared 5 meters in front of me in a green area in the butterfly, and all I could do was to catch it by the horns and try to fight it away.

So who was stronger – the Portuguese bull or the Russian orienteer? An easy victory for Portugal.

– It was stronger than me and it threw me down. I was lucky to not get hurt.

The bullfight did not have a good influence of the orienteering of Novikov – who did a total of around 15 minutes mistakes in the long distance – partly due to the bull incidence, according to Novikoc.

WRE race coming up

The WRE race on Day 3 is the most prestigous race in Portugal O-Meeting. The terrain is promised to be more technical with more large rocks. Can Niggli and Gueorgiou keep the others behind for another day? Several of the other participants have had a “training day” either today or yesterday – and might saved some power for the WRE race…

Before that, Gueorgiou, Adamski  and Tranchand all were set to compete in the afternoon Trail-o competition. Less speed – but good technical training nevertheless…

Results

(Note – these are unofficial results, but should still be correct)

• Results and maps from all courses