World Cup #1 in Turkey and mixed sprint relay

Right now Øystein is in the wellness centre on the hotel enjoying a Turkish bath and massage. He forgot to lock his computer, and as his room mate I decided to write an article on his blog, since it has been some time since last update. The first World Cup round in Turkey is over and Ida, Øystein and Bjørn will stay here until Thursday before we go to Slovenia and meet the rest of the National team for a six day long training camp. We have some days of easy training here in Turkey after the World Cup, enjoying the sun and swimming in the Mediterranean Sea.

We were supposed to be four runners from Norway, but Silje got sick and couldn’t run the competitions. We came to Antalya on Wednesday night and Thursday we used to prepare for the stony and low visible terrain by visiting the Model event and Antalya O-Days stage 1. With two good trainings we felt prepared for the first World Cup race of 2014. Here is a short summary of the competitions.

Middle qualification
It was a tight race in the short Middle distance and unfortunately Øystein didn’t manage to qualify because of too many small mistakes. Anyway, only the thirty best got to the A-final and there were still some World Cup points to fight for in the B-final. Ida and Bjørn qualified for the A-final with stable performances.

Middle final
The finals were dominated by the Swedes and the Swiss which seems to be in good shape. Ida was best of the Norwegians with an 8th place among very strong runners and Bjørn got a 21st place. Øystein ran through the B-final with following days sprint in his mind.

Mixed sprint relay
Since mixed sprint relay is in the WOC programme for the next years we want to use every opportunity to train for it. Even though people have different opinions about this relay format, it is taken seriously by all the athletes and we have ambitions to fight for medals at WOC. We had to replace Silje, and Anette Baklid fulfilled the team in the last minute. Everybody ran as expected and finally, after some disqualifications we placed 9th. Especially Øystein ran very fast and caught several teams and had second best time on the second leg.

Now we have some weeks of good training to prepare for EOC in Portugal. Danish Spring 21st - 23rd of March is selection races for EOC and WC in Spain. In other words, the next weeks will be important.

News on World of O from Middle Qual, Middle Final (route choice analyze) ans Sprint relay and Live centre with link to results and GPS tracking.

Summary of last autumn

I have not updated my blog since last autumn, and I will now try to make a short summary of what I have been doing the last months. In September and October I was so busy racing, training and travelling, that I did not take the time to make updates, and since November I have stayed mostly home, and had to focus on daily routines like training and work.

WOC 2014 training camp with the Norwegian team in Asiago in Italy
September started with a WOC 2014 training camp with the Norwegian National team in Asiago in Italy, which I have already wrote a report about.

Norwegian Champs in Kongsberg
The following weekend the Norwegian Champs was arranged in Kongsberg, in the neighbor terrain to where the World Cup races will be held in the beginning of June. The Long distance went pretty well, and I finished 6th. On the Middle I came 16th. On the relay I did a good last leg for Wing OK, and after having the 4th best time on the last leg we could finish as 11th team.

Races in Alta Badia and WOC training in Asiago in Italy
The third weekend in September I went back to Italy for five days together with a few runners from Halden SK and some other Norwegians. During the weekend I was running two really nice races in Alta Badia, and I finished 2nd in both the Sprint (with mass start) and WRE Long distance. Monday to Wednesday I got some good trainings in Venice and Asiago, before I went home for Lidingöloppet.

Arranging and running Lidingöloppet home on Lidingö in Stockholm
Lidingöloppet is the worlds largest cross country race, with more then 40.000 participants. It's the main income for my club IFK Lidingö SOK, and I was helping with the organizing every day. On Friday I was also running the first leg for the winning team in the relay Lidingöstafetten.

World Cup final in Baden in Switzerland
In the beginning of October the World Cup final was arranged in Baden in Switzerland. Friday it was an unofficial Sprint relay, and I was running the 3rd leg for the Norwegian first team. We where fighting in the lead the whole relay, and finished 2nd, after the Danish team. Neither in Saturdays Middle nor in Sundays Sprint I did my best, but managed still to to finish 13th overall in the World Cup, as the best Norwegian male.

WOC training camp with IFK Lidingö in Asiago in Italy
After the WC final I travelled directly to Asiago, where I joined the last 3 days of IFK Lidingö's WOC training camp. It was my third time in the Asiago area this autumn, and I started to feel familiar with the terrain for the WOC 2014.

25manna relay in Stockholm
In the middle of October 25 manna was arranged in Stockholm. I was running the first leg for IFK Lidingö, and it went fine until I did a huge mistake in the end. The rest of the team was running pretty well, and we finished in 6th position for the third year in row.

Park World Tour in China
In the last half of October I spent one and a half week in China, and I have already wrote a report from the Park World Tour.

Smålandskavlen relay in Oskarshamn
My season was ended with Smålandskavlen the last weekend in October. It went really well for the the whole team, and IFK Lidingö managed to win the relay after a trilling finish.

The start of the new training period
After Smålandskavlen I took it easier, and so far this winter I have stayed mostly home and had focus on daily routines like training and work. In September I moved to a big house on Lidingö together with four other orienteering runners, and after a very busy period in September and October it has been great to spend more time together with them both for training and social activities.

During November I increased my training, and since December I have been training very well. It has not been much snow in Stockholm so far this winter, and until Christmas it was excellent conditions for orienteering training. During Christmas I had planed to do more skiing in Trondheim, but also there it was snow free in the city, even if it was skiing conditions in the higher parts of Bymarka. The Christmas was therefore a great mix of running, skiing, strength training and social activities..

Even if I so far this winter have been more home than normal, I have been on some training camps and races. In November I was selected in Norwegian Elite training group, and so far I have been on two different training camps, one in Moss in Norway in December and one in Silkeborg in Denmark in January. In January I have also been competing in ski-orienteering two weekends. In the Norwegian Relay Champs I won a silver medal with Wing OK, and I also got the opportunity to competed in the World Cup on Gåsbu (since Norway had some extra places on home ground). I will maybe write some words and publish maps from this activities if I get time.

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.

Park World Tour in China

In the last half of October I spent a week in China participating in Park World Tour. This was the fifth time I was going for PWT in China, and it has always been one of the seasons highlights:-)

The tour this year was called Vasa PWT Orienteering Festival, and was arranged by Nordic Ways, that are organizing a lot of different events on China in typical nordic sports such as skiing, running, orienteering and biking.

The first races was held in Changchun, 1000 km north east of Beijing, where I ran PWT last year and also participated in the Chinese Vasaloppet in 2011.

PWT-prologue, Changchun
The first racing day it was held two competitions, and we started with a Prologue in the morning. It was 3 km course with a combination of middle distance and sprint character. I did an OK performance, but I lost some time to the winner Mårten Boström the last half of the course because of the route choice to the 8th control, a small mistake to the 9th control and generally to slow running speed.

Østerbø nummer 9 i Kina, orientering.no

PWT-1 Sprint, Changchun
In the evening the first real PWT race was held as a Sprint in Changchun Sculpture Park. My race was again OK, even if I lost some seconds several places, but I felt the winner Yannick Michiels was running very fast.

The PWT China tour 2013 on the way, pwt.org
- Manglet litt fart, orientering.no

PWT-2 Middle, Changchun
The following day we ran a Middle distance in a really nice forest with mainly great runnability and several counter details.

My speed was good enough to fight for a top position, and I did also a good technical performance, but a huge parallel mistake to the 18th control destroyed a good result. I left the valley one spur earlier then I had planned, and was quite confused when I came to a control with code 48 in stead of 47. The control I came to was the 20th control, that I should have on the second loop, and in total I lost 1 minute on the mistake and a possible to 3 position. Edgars Bertuks won the men's class, and in the women's class Karolin Ohlsson won all the three first races.

China tour continues with middle distance, pwt.org
Parallelfeil ødela for topplassering, orientering.no

After two intensive days with three races in Changchun the plan was to fly to Beijing the next morning, and have the last race the same evening. Unfortunately it was very foggy, and we had to wait on the airport for 7 hours before we could fly to Beijing. The last race was therefore postponed one day.

PWT-3 Sprint, Beijing
The race in Beijing was a sprint held in the Ruins of Yuanmingyuan Park. It was a great area for a sprint race, and the water and bridges made it passible to make complex route choice legs.

After being too slow in the first sprint race I tried to open more offensive today, and succeed quite well. Unfortunately I lost a few seconds on some of the route choices in the first part of the race, but I did well in the control picking part and managed also too keep up the speed in the easier last part. My result was a 2nd place, 6 seconds behind Yannick Michiels, and it was great to end the tour with a good result.

PWT China tour 2013 concluded in Beijing, pwt.org
Sekunder fra seier, orientering.no

The Great Wall
After the race we went directly to the Great Wall. The weather was quite bad, compared to last year, and most of us was running on the wall to avoid getting cold. The wall is partly very steep, and it was quite slippery on the wet stones. In the evening we had a Beijing Duck dinner.

The following day I spent shopping and in the evening we had another fun night with good food and happy people. The last day I got a haircut and had a short run before the flight home.

I want to thank Nordic Ways (with Gåvert Wååg as General Manager), Jaroslav Kacmarcik (who had contract with the runners and fixed most with maps and curses) and all the runners participating for making this great trip possible!

In my Picasa you can find 200 pictures from PWT in China. My pictures from 2010 and 2012 can also be worth a look.

Busy autumn season

The last two month has been really busy for me, with a lot of competitions and several training camps. The short periods I have been home I have spent my time working, and unfortunately not had time to update this blog with maps and pictures.

Since the beginning of September I have had this program:

• WOC 2014 training camp with the Norwegian National team in Asiago in Italy
• Norwegian Champs on Kongsberg
• Races in Alta Badia and WOC training in Asiago in Italy
• Arranging and running Lidingöloppet home on Lidingö in Stockholm
• World Cup final in Baden in Switzerland
• WOC training camp with IFK Lidingö in Asiago in Italy
• 25manna relay in Stockholm
• Park World Tour in China
• Smålandskavlen relay in Oskarshamn

Now I have my season break, and will finally have time to publish some maps, pictures and short reports. Yesterday I wrote about IFK Lidingö's victory in Smålandskavlen, and tomorrow I will write about PWT in China. I had planed to make some updates from China, but since many apps and websites (like Facebook, Twitter, Blogger and Picasa) are blocked there it made in difficult.

Victory in Smålandskavlen with IFK Lidingö

Last weekend I ended my orienteering season competing in the traditional relay Smålandskavlen in Oskarshamn south east in Sweden. The terrain was really nice, and I got a good feeling after Saturdays training.

Anders Carlsson and Filip Dahlgren gave us an excellent start of the relay, being 4th and 1st on the two individual night legs, and Niklas Serrander could start the first day leg in the lead. Niklas has been sick this autumn and is not in his best shape, but did an impressive performance doing almost none mistakes.

I started out on the 4th leg as 3rd runner, 3 min behind Scott Fraser (SNO) and 11 sec behind Jacob Lööf (Malungs). I lost 10 - 30 sec to both the 2nd, 3rd and 4th control, and got caught by Jere Pajunen (Kalevan Rasti) that started 50 sec after me. He held a good speed, but to the 7th control I passed him, and after that I was mostly first of us. I was accurate in my orienteering, and felt I ran pretty well.

The 14th and 15th control was forked, and I took over the lead, passing SNO and Malungs without knowing it. To the 17th I was running to the left of the march, and just before the control I met both KR, SNO and Malaungs who had been running to the right. To the 18th I ran too much to the right, and needed to use the last longer leg to catch up a 15 sec gap to the others. I managed to pass Malungs and KR in the run in, and could change over as 2nd team, 3 sec behind SNO.

Fredrik Johansson did an excellent last leg. Together with Malungs and SNO he managed to run away from Thierry Gueorgiou (KR), who was tired, and in the same forking where I took over the lead he took an other route then the others, increased his speed, and managed to come alone to the finish. It was a great feeling to end the season winning one of the big relays together with my mates in IFK Lidingö! Results and GPS tracking

Fredrik Johansson avgjorde Smålandskavlen, orientering.se

WOC 2014 training in Italy

Last week I spent on a training camp with the Norwegian National Team in Asiago in Italy, preparing for the World Orienteering Championships held in july next summer.

In total I did 7 trainings in forest, 3 sprint trainings and one easy run to a peak in the mountains. The weather was great, the spirit in the team good and we had in total a really nice training week in the Italian mountains.

I have not uploaded my maps to DOMA yet, but you can find most of the maps on Silje Ekroll Jahren's homepage.

One of the days we spent in Venice, where the WOC Sprint Final will be arranged. As a second training that day I ran most of the Women's Elite course from the Venice Orienteering Meeting arranged in 2009. To the left you can see my competition map from the race. (The embargoed area for WOC is east of my map + the area north of the 23nd control.)

In my Picasa you find pictures from the whole week in Italy. Most of them are from Venice.

At the moment I'm having some easy days, before the Norwegian Championships on Kongsberg starts on Thursday. Long distance, Middle Qual and Final, and Relay will be held 4 days in row, so it will be a though weekend.