WOC selections and EOC

So last weekend GB had the World Orienteering Champs test races. The policy is to select the team 3 months out, which might seem strange to some people as we haven't even had the European Championships yet. However, that is the way it is, and so we had some excellent competitions in the Lake District. First up was the middle distance. Not my best performance by any means, and I finished 4th, about 1:30 behind Doug Tullie.

Then it was the long distance, and I needed a big performance (GB only has 2 places in each of long and middle due to the new WOC qualification rules and I have no WOC form since 2011). I tried 'softer' as our old psychologist always used to preach, and I won the race, 1 minute in front of Scott Fraser, and a couple of minutes ahead of the others. Really nice race with some good route choices and tricky controls. My race wasn't perfect, but it was a nice boost to be strongest in the last part of the course!

I have been selected to run long distance at WOC in Italy in July. I am also in the relay 'squad' to be selected during the WOC week.

Yesterday I ran Scottish Orienteering League race 2 at Faskally near Pitlochry. It was a really nice middle distance, and my performance was much better than at the WOC middle test!

Tomorrow I fly out to Portugal for the European Championships. I am selected to run middle and long, and hopefully relay. First race is middle qualifier on Thursday.