Bergen Sprint Camp

Last weekend I participated in Bergen Sprint Camp together with more than 200 other orienteering runners from 14 different nations. In total it was arranged 5 quality trainings in 3 days, where 4 of them counted as an overall competition. The weather in Bergen was perfect, with several plus degrees and no snow, and Varegg had planed challenging courses on good maps for all the trainings/races.

I have focused on physical training (and forest orienteering) so far this winter, so this weekend was a perfect start on a period with more focus on sprint orienteering. On the Friday Night sprint I had problems getting a good flow, and did also some bad route choices.

The Saturday morning City sprint went better, and on Saturday evening Loops it went well (except the first leg on loop E).

Sunday BSC was ended with a Final, where the top 6 overall runners started together, and the first to finish was the winner. I had the same order in the butterfly as Murray Strain and Mårten Boström, but we took different route choices on several legs. On the long leg to the 10th I and Mårten took left and Murray right, but it was very equal, and I punched the control just in front of the two others. (None of us took the optimal route, as you can see in Jan Kocbach's analyze, where F or D seems to be the fastest.) On the last long leg I took the left route, and when Murray and Morten followed me I tried to keep a stable high speed up the hill, and managed to keep the lead until the finish. Galina Vinogradova won the women's class.

After the Final I also climbed the famous Stoltzekleiven for my first time. Stoltzen is one of the World's steepest uphill races and has more then 300 m climb in less than 1 km.

You can see all maps from BSC in my DOMA, and Jan Kocbach has made a new great app called SPAS (SPlits Analysis System) were you can analyze the route choices of more then 100 runners on each stage. The organizers page with results, maps, route choice analyzes and pictures are well worth a visit. Bergen Sprint Camp was again very well organized, and is one of the best opportunities to train sprint orienteering on quality maps and courses.