Friday 7 June 2013

Race 4 - Swedish Champs Sprint

The Swedish Champs weekend are being held in Borlange, close to where HJ and I lived in Falun until a little more than a week ago. Our Swedish club, Kvarnsvedens GoIF OK, are hosting the competitions.

The first competition of the weekend was the Sprint, with first starts at 5pm in the afternoon. The weekend is competitive, as 5 of the Danish women and Ingrid Stengard FIN, have made the trip here, so along with Cecilia Thomasson SWE there are 5 women from the top 20 in the world. Any performances are therefore a good gauge of fitness as all the women here have potential to win medals in the Europeans in two weeks time.

D21 Part 1
I was fortunate to be one of the later starters but with all day to prepare I was feeling nervous by the time I could start!

But despite the nerves, I pulled out a good race to win by 1 sec over Cecilia. I also finished some minutes ahead of the Danes and Ingrid, so it's a performance that I'm relatively pleased with. I was leading overall for most of the SM course apart from two controls. If the Danes are taken into account, I took the lead after the 8th control, having been a few seconds behind until this point.

Mostly the race was ok. I lost a few seconds to no.2 but the simple RC gave me opportunity to plan later (an opportunity I should have used to plan the long leg!). The first part of the course was deceptive and planning ahead the forest controls was crucial. Here the orienteering became far more challenging with paths everywhere, and at high speeds, they could be easy to miss. It was enough to keep track of where I was and wanted to go, so planning the long leg was put by the wayside.

Idiot! A snap decision. North to the railway. 30 seconds slower than south on the roads, and a 50 secs slower than going through the middle. About 10-15 seconds were lost near the control, with a steep sandy climb, a push off the bike. The other two options had a nicer route into the control and no climb whatsoever. At this point I was two seconds behind the overall lead having had more than a 30 second advantage.

D21 Part 2 (Sorry for being 90° rotated!)
Map change on the move, more standing punches - just enough to hear the beep and see the flash. A risk that the punch may not register, but by the time the SI card is in the unit, I'm already accelerating away.

A few more good controls, then somehow an awesomely fast leg. I felt this could be one of the key legs. Two options were presented, through the big depression or to the left on the flat. I think I gained most of my time on the exit from the control here. After the long leg I had regained my lead to a mere one sec and then extended it to 10 secs by the road crossing.

No.19 another risk. Hard to see the cut through path while riding. But it was there. My eyes didn't not deceive! And then came no.20. I stopped to check the map at the foot of the hill as the circle of no.20 was obscuring a path. I rode on, made the turn and then skidded past the control. At least I could punch on the move as I rode back up the hill, but it lost my 14 sec advantage. Now for the toughest part of the course. The final 2 control sprint. over the bridge, punch, follow the tapes, punch, race for the line. I'm glad my speed has improved this year as while my times were a second slower than Cecilia, I held the lead. Just.

One second separated us at the finish. Close one! But my first Swedish Champs title.

Results: http://eventor.orientering.se/Events/ResultList?eventId=5689&groupBy=EventClass

Photos to follow later!