RL julnummer 08

24
Middle distance is by far my weakest discipline, I am much more
suited to sprint, long and relay where the orienteering is much easier
and I can use my running speed to full effect, despite this I do enjoy
the intensity of middle distance and am motivated to improve. I
decided to run the middle qualifier below full speed to make sure that
I would make no mistakes and was confident that this would allow me
to qualify for the final. I started well and caught runners that started
ahead of me early on; I began to really enjoy the terrain and was
flowing well through the controls. However towards the end I got
confused coming over a hill top as the terrain in front of me did not
look like I had imagined it would from the map. This confusion meant
that I lost 2 minutes checking that I had not gone wrong, I finished the
course strongly with no large mistakes but was 2 minutes away from
qualifying which was very frustrating. It was difficult to be angry
because the terrain and atmosphere was really enjoyable. Gustav and
Kalle, who I was staying with, qualified easily, so I was happy for them and I could still run the
final the next day, just not with the same importance.
The middle final was all about Gustav’s run. After JWOC I realized what huge strength the
Swedes have in their M18s so for Gustav to take the victory in such technical terrain by a clear
margin was very impressive. It was great to watch him run in, obviously very happy, to take the
victory and his first national title.
We were very confident of a top ten result in the
relay especially now that we had a Swedish
Champion on the anchor leg. I always say that in
relays you need a little bit of luck and
unfortunately lady luck was not on our side that
day. Kalle lost his SI card and only found it on his
way back to the event arena and so obviously lost a
lot of time on the leaders. I ran the course on my
own which meant I lost time on people running in
the packs at the front but overtook quite a lot of
teams. Gustav took more places and took the
fastest time on last leg. Looking at the results, if
we had had a bit more luck a top ten would have
been easily reachable.
I would like to thank the whole of the Bergman
family for being so welcoming and letting me stay
with them for the SM weekend and the other times I have been over to Sweden to train and race.
The weekend was really beneficial for me and I learnt a huge amount about my own orienteering
and areas that I need to improve. The terrain could not have been better, in particular the relay was
held in incredible terrain. I find it difficult to understand why such a good area is not used very
often but I suppose in Sweden there is no shortage of great areas. Hopefully it will not be too long
before I am back in Sweden training and racing in the forests.
24
John Rocke