January Classics: Day 3

Jan Kocbach January 3, 2014 Orienteering News 1 Comment

– One of the best and most varied Long distance courses I have run. Nice terrain and interesting orienteering all the way, is Mats Troeng’s comment about the EOC Long Distance Final in 2008. Today’s edition of January Classics takes us to Latvia!

From the official EOC 2008 webpage: The course-setters had made good work to prepare nice courses for the long distance finals. The terrain was very unuusal and it was changing all the time through the course. Runners had the possibility to run in the very fast, but also hilly places, there were place where they had to cross the big sand field that looked almost like Sahara, there were a lot of marshes full of water and at there were even parts with very green areas.

Some statements from the runners (several of the links are “dead” now – but the statements are still valid):

Eva Jurenikova: – The long final yesterday was one of the technically most demanding long distance races I have ever run. I had big respect for the terrain but I was also looking forward to the challenge. I was not able to avoid mistakes, unfortunately I lost ca 1-2 minutes at couple of controls, all together more than 5 minutes. This season I have been struggling with direction keeping. I started to use thumb … [read more]
Baptiste Rollier: – After a bad start in the sprint qualification where I missed the final for 1 second, I needed to get the self confidence back for the long distance.Therefore my tactic in the long qualification was to have full control of my orienteering during the all course and especially at the beginning. That was the right tactic and with a 2nd place in my heat I saw that my technic was ok and my physical shape […] Then the concentration level was a little bit up and down which provoke a 1 minute mistake at control 25. At the spectator control, I heard that I had the 3rd time and was in the battle for a final 6th place. This gave me extra energy and I could rise my focus for the last 1.5km. … [read more]
Anne Margrethe Hausken: – What shall I say? I am flying! I have taken my first victory in an international long distance race – and that in a European Champs. I started with respect for the mission, because I anticipated that it would be a technically very difficult course. Today I have read the map accurately all the way, because I did not dare to simplify so much. Those of you who are orienteers know what line orienteering is, and when you do that for 68 minutes you get very tired in the head .… [read more (Norwegian)]
Celine Dodin: – After the qualification of the long distance which took place on the seafront, the organization we had reserved a former “military” on land still virgin any mapping! To prepare ourselves, only a few lines of description on the latest newsletter of the competition: it is not uncommon to have a look on old maps before, but things change and it is good from time to time! [read more (French – with map and nice analysis of competition)]
Øystein Kvaal Østerbø: – Yesterday’s Long distance Final was a really tough challenge. In the beginning and end of the course the ground was sandy, while most of the course was in green forest with bad runability and a lot of very wet and muddy marches.I did a really bad performance, and destroyed my chances for a good result early. To the 4th control I did a parallel mistake, and lost 4 minutes. I also lost 2 minutes … [read more]
Anders Nordberg: – Jeg vet jeg tapte en del på vei til 4.post i går, men ellers var åpningen helt ok. Jeg måtte jobbe for å holde farten oppe i starten, men fikk en bedre og bedre følelse etter hvert som postene satt bra. På 14.post kom jeg litt for langt til venstre, jeg ble veldig usikker om jeg var helt feil, minutter gikk, så ønsker jeg vel egentlig bare å glemme resten av løpet som var hodeløst … [read more]
Christian Teich: – Gestern war ein sehr anstregender Tag für mich. Das Langfinale in Irbene bot eine wirklich orientierungstechnisch und physisch anspruchsvolle Langdistanz. Am Start fühlten sich meine Beine noch sehr schwer an vom Vorlauf. Ich hätte nicht gedacht, das ich diese Belastung so schlecht verkrafte. Nach einer kurzen Warmup Zeitging es anden Startder Langdistanz. Sümpfe, … [read more]
Jørn Sundby: – I think the only thing that is 100% clear about following is that the longer and more technical the more runners will get together. Easy technical courses with long legs and routechioces at WOC 2006 and 2007 proved to very effective against runners grouping. But do we r … [read more]
Swedish O-Federation (web-TV): – Anne Margrethe Hausken har efter två finaler på EM två guld. En skadefri säsong och flytten till Halden är delar av framgångsfaktorerna säger Hausken när orientering.se sökte audiens för en träff med EM-drottningen.Se inslaget här. … [read more]
Jørn Sundby: – Tsvetkov was a surprise five years ago in quite similar terrain in Estonia when he took the JWOC gold on long distance, fighting with Merz and Hubmann there as well. And we haven’t seen him much since then. As far as I remember Tsvetkov comes from the area around St.Petersburg, so he should be used to flat and fast terrains … [read more]
Thea Lillehov: – Yesterday's long distance b-final was much better than the qualification race. I worked really hard on some mental things the evening after the quali and the morning before the b-final, so in good time before the start I started looking forward to do orienteering again. My goal was to do basic orienteering again, not focusing on runnning speed. Due to this I was preparing and concentrating bef … [read more]
IOF World Cup News: – The 24-year-old Russian is not at all on the IOF World Rankings list, but he is actually not so new among the very best. Five years ago he won a gold medal at the Junior World Championships in Estonia, also at long distance. “But this here is much bigger”, he smiles. He was very focused on the tough long distance course today, which went through many different types of terrain, and he made only some very small mistakes. […] The Russian is from St. Petersburg and he has been orienteering for 17 years. His biggest goal for the season is the World Championships in the Czech Republic. “There I want to win again”, he smiles. [read more]
IOF World Cup News: – Anne Margrethe Hausken had never won an international event in the long distance format before coming to EOC in Latvia. […] “It’s more special for me to win the long than the sprint, because I have won sprints before. And it’s another gold medal!” she says. Anne Margrethe showed again that she has become an orienteer on a higher level. Now she has got great self-confidence in her running. “I was focusing on doing the right things during the race”, she says.
[read more]
Karin Leonhardt: – …kein Streich :o)heute fand das Langfinale in wirklich coolem GelÃ¤nde statt, skandinavisch, sumpfig, interessant und recht schwierig! […] Als ich dann jedoch den 10 Posten in einem kleinen Grüppchen laufend auslies und auch den 11. noch lange suchte beschloss ich den Rest des B-Finales nur mehr fertig zu joggen … [read more]
IOF World Cup News: – Dmitry Tsvetkov, Russia ran the race of his life, in only his fourth season in the senior ranks, to take the men’s title by 33 seconds ahead of the vastly more experienced Daniel Hubmann, Switzerland. Emil Wingstedt, Sweden, took the bronze to add to his gold medal in the sprint on Monday. Switzerland demonstrated their strength in depth with three finishers in the top six. Local favourite Edgars Bertuks just missed out on a podium place, finishing seventh. [read more]

Webroute for selected leg: Leg 3-4

First take a look at the map above – and then draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers.