Two Top 20 Places!

Wow, what a result! Fantastic, awesome, incredible and then some. Our guys did us proud today, from the word go they were focused and determined to put on a good show for you guys at home, and that they did. In temperatures nearing 35 degrees, the spectators were treated to an orienteering feast of the finest nature.

Our day started early with team manager Richard (me) waking team coach Ulu by mistake at 6:45 because I thought we would miss the bus … that was leaving at 9:30. I guess I was just as nervous as the guys. Getting to the event was no problem this morning and all athletes reported as requested into the start zone by the allocated time. The Austro supporters caught a slightly earlier bus and were in the finish in time to see the first women finish.

At this stage it was already hot. And it was clear from the commentator that the radio control times were slow, so nobody expected (the adjusted) winning time of 32 minutes to be met. Although we didn’t have any ladies taking part, let me give you a brief summary of how it unfolded. The area was hard, technical and green and many top favourites struggled from the word go, all that is except one. Yup, the ever fresh Simone showed the world once again how it is to be done, by catching Marianne Andersen and pulling her through to a top 3 result. Her time of 32:13 was excellent all things being considered and a full 1 min 5 s ahead of the next person.

Well done to Simone for her 11^th individual title.

The men’s race went very similar to the ladies, with very few good times being announced from the radio control. Felix was our first starter at 11:37 and we didn’t hear anything about him until he appeared on the heels of Kerschi at the public control. Kerschi, our 2^nd starter, was announced however before as having the 3^rd fastest split at the first radio control, and by the time he and Felix appeared at the spectator run through he had dropped just 1 place to 4^th best time.

I was standing in the coaching zone, giving out the refreshments, and you could see the heat written on the faces – but they were looking determined and they headed off back into the forest together. It was looking good so far. They had a smallish loop of around 13 minutes still to do, so I wasn’t sure who I would see next – those two or Jan who started 3^rd at 11:55.

As I nervously paced up and down waiting for … well … somebody, Kerschi was pre-warned at the last control, and then there were these two red / white / red blurs across my vision as Felix, followed immediately by Felix, raced the finish straight and Kerschi ran into the amazing 4^th place (with 17 athletes already finished), so I knew already that this was a top 30 – wow! While I was digesting this information, Jan was pre-warning at the spectator control, with the 5^th fastest time.

He was charging down the marked route, looking for this red bull, which he got from me, and then he disappeared directly back into the forest. His time was looking good, but I was not sure exactly how he was going. After a very loonnngggg 13 minutes Jan was pre-warned, together with Estonian Olle Kärner at the last control and I knew he was on schedule to run a similar time to Kerschi – that is was exactly the same was something I didn’t expect.

At this stage it was down to “nail biting” and praying, as both were on the 8^th place and there were still 21 athletes to go. So we definitely had two top 30 places. But it just got better, top names like Wingstedt and Haldin had nightmares, more favoured runners from other countries close to us didn’t reach our times – it looked like we were heading for maybe a top 25 maybe.

While this was happening, there was some alien person called Thierry Gueorgiou out there hitting the controls at a rapid and frightening rate. His lead extended by each radio control, at 1 it was 20 or so seconds, by the spectator control he had caught up 1 min 20 on the rest and could see Valentin Novikov just ahead of him, by the last control pre-warning he had over taken Valentin and extended his lead to just under 2 minutes, and by the finish his lead had been extended to over 2 minutes – just incredible. Certainly this was the performance of the day!

Once he had crossed the line however, and I knew there were no more coming, a hasty glance at the results board, showed two Austrians on the 19^th position and that is how it stayed. A truly exciting and action packed race with extra cream for us Austrians.

The race was won in 32:21, exactly the expected winning time and Kerschi and Jan had times of 37:38. Felix, on a day that just wasn’t his, finished in 33^rd place with a time of 42:00. An excellent result from old three of our top runners – they did us proud – even Ulu was smiling!

Here you can see some photo's of the event.

Greetings from Kiev,

Richard.

P.S: Even I managed to get out there today, and ran / walked / jogged a course on the map. It was a horrible thing that map, green and woody and just unpleasant to run. Hats off to all those who were able to run and could with such ease.