A Tough Night in Norway: Norwegian Champs Night!

– The start was tough. I did some mistakes, had bad flow and lost the headlamp a few times, the men’s clear winner Carl Godager Kaas told orientering.no after the race. – But after a while I get good flow in my orienteering and good feedback when I started to pick up runners.

– Diffuse and challenging terrain, and I did some small mistakes, Godager Kaas explains.

GPS tracking from orienteering is fun. GPS tracking from night orienteering is legendary (Jørn Sundby)

Godager Kaas won the men’s class nearly 6 minutes ahead of last weekend’s NM Middle champion Bjørn Ekeberg with Nicholas Oskarsson in third. Olav Lundanes finished less than a minute behind Godager Kaas, but missed the punch from the 3rd control. With 82 minutes the winning time was more than 12 minutes longer than the prescribed winning time for NM Night. In the women’s class young Kamilla Olaussen was fastest – with Anne Margrethe Hausken Nordberg and Heidi Bagstevold following closely behind.

Night orienteering at its best

– I stood alone in the forest laughing when I was at the 8th control for the second time and I still hadn’t found the 7th control. Night orienteering at its best, Lone Brochman tweeted after returning to the finish.

Again it was proved that night orienteering is the ultimate challenge for an orienteer. Many top runners made 10 minutes mistakes or more – even the stronger and stronger headlamps of the last years did not help. Only one third two thirds of the starters in the men’s elite class finished the race – 19 turned up on the results list with DNF and DSQ, and only 9 men finished below 100 minutes. Below is a Tweet by one of the legendary night orienteers – many times talked about as “King of the Night” – Anders Nordberg. Nordberg did struggle a bit finding the first control – but as he says – at least the running stride was good…

Følte i alle fall at løpssteget satt bra i natt.. pic.twitter.com/fBm2J8D38D

— Anders Nordberg (@anordber) September 19, 2015

Night orienteering is ruthless

Last weekends triple Norwegian Champion Mari Fasting did a mistake of more than 15 minutes on one control – and in the end finished down in 14th place. To put it the way of one of the eager followers of the GPS-tracking  from NM Natt, Jørn Sundby: – Three NM gold medals last weekend. Now 15 minutes mistake and still lost at the 10th control. Night orienteering is ruthless, even for Mari Fasting. 

But even with this mistake Fasting has had a great season, improved her stability and reached a higher level. The silver medal at the World Championships long distance in Scotland being the highlight and this 10th control at NM Natt probably one of the low points.

Maps, courses and GPS-tracking

NM natt H 21

» See map in omaps.worldofo.com

NM natt D 21

» See map in omaps.worldofo.com

Results

Men

Women

• Full results