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.

Portugal and Swedish / WOC rule changes

Pic: Joey Simkova

Portugal
Last week I was in Portugal with IFK Mora, on a preparation camp for EOC. We ran some competitions the first weekend - supposedly the most relevant for EOC, albeit with complex rock detail which will not be the case in 4 weeks. First up was a long distance, and I was pleased to finish 2nd, 2 minutes behind Bergman. He ran 70 minutes, and I had 72 for the 16km course, which gives an indication of how fast EOC terrain can be! It was even quite wet in marshy areas and in the valleys. 2d-rerun of the race here. Results here. I feel a little more confident about tackling the 23km at EOC long distance now.
The next day was a WRE middle event, but I chose to take it as a low intensity training. Then we had a fantastic 6 days training around Coruche, with some relay training, some night training - almost all my maps are on my map archive page here.

Rule changes
It seems as though I may be able to run both British and Swedish Championships this year after all, as SOFT have changed the SM rules again. I have to check the details, but as I still have a registered address in Sweden and live there for part of the year, I should be eligible to run.

I also support the NORD proposal to split WOC into alternate years with urban and forest parts, and to revise the World Cup into something that athletes actually can afford to and want to go to! Proposal here. I also think that there should be qualification races for all athletes to ensure an equal chance for all in the finals, so that there is no 'headstart' for those runners whose federations have money to send them all to the best World Ranking gathering events (such as one-off races costing around 1000euro like the Turkey World Cup?). Countries outside the top 10-15 nations will also be able to develop athletes better, as there is actually a reason to go to WOC other than to just run sprint!

British Night Champion

Last weekend I won my first British Night Championships (from 2 starts). There weren't a lot of the top guys there, but I did a fairly good race to win by almost 5 minutes from my IFK Mora club-mate Jegor Kostylev.
Results here
My map here

The weekend before I ran the Scottish Night Champs, and finished 2nd, just behind Mark Nixon. That was a scrappy run with many small mistakes, but I really enjoyed the course and the terrain. I also ran the CompassSport Trophy qualification race at South Achray for my club Forth Valley Orienteers, winning in front of Mark and Hector Haines. Maps here and here.

Training is going well, but I am happy that I am not competing in Turkey (World Cup) this weekend. Apart from the large financial outlay of attempting to compete in this years World Cup (all races to count, and single race in Turkey, 2 in Spain, 2 in Norway, 1 in Finland, 2 in Switzerland as well as EOC and WOC), the timing is not fantastic. Trying to lay down a good winter base for the long season doesn't mesh well with competing in a World Cup before the end of February. Unfortunately the Spain races fall between the GB WOC test races and the European Champs, so it is already a very intense period even without the extra World Cups.
I can't help but feel that the old system of week long World Cup rounds such as those I ran in Italy, France, UK etc around 8-10 years ago were much better designed for the current international elite - one week in the spring, WOC in the summer, and one week in the autumn so that those runners with jobs or without federation support can afford the time and cost to attend. Nowadays the World Cup seems to be Sweden vs Switzerland plus occasional guest runners. Personally I am saving my money to prepare for the World and European Championships as well as I can, and completely ignoring the World Cups for the foreseeable future (unless they fit in with my specific preparation). It seems like quite a few other runners agree!

Scotland!

Stirling Castle and Wallace Monument from Douglashistory.co.uk

With WOC 2015 coming up, it seemed like a good opportunity to move to Scotland. I have spent a lot of time there on training camps, but never lived there before, so it was an exciting step. We chose to move to Stirling, as I knew quite a few people in the local club, Forth Valley Orienteers. They are also just about the most active club in Scotland, and Stirling is well located for hill running, orienteering, and also for travelling to Edinburgh or Glasgow.

We moved in the end of October, after the end of the Swedish season, and got straight into some tough Scottish orienteering. My new training partner is Mark Nixon, who is also a Forth Valley member, and we met regularly before Christmas to push each other in training sessions like these.

The first week in January the GB team had a WOC 2015 camp near Inverness. All my maps are in my map archive here.

One of the main reasons for leaving the Stockholm area is to get into the hills more, and within 45 minutes of Stirling are both the Ochil Hills and the Trossachs which have become my new favourite running grounds.

 Out in the Ochils with Mark

 Trossachs

Solo run

 Gargunnock in the (recent) snow

 Home!

Top of  Carleatheran (just 30cm of snow on top...)

The end of 2013 season

Me in action at Smalandskavlen

It has been a few months since my last blog - mostly due to lazy-ness, but I have also moved country and changed job. This is a little catch up about the end of last season.

After missing out on World Champs, I was selected for the World Cup Final in Baden. The middle distance wasn't my best day - I was a bit flat physically, and made some bad route choices ending in 34th position. The sprint (my first in anger for some time!) went much better. A decent performance, and more importantly, no problems with my calf, ending with a 21st place (only 13s from 10th, and 19s from 6th).
I wasn't tracked, but the tracking for the races are here - middle and sprint

Middle results
Sprint results

One week later was 25manna, and I ran the 7th leg for SNO. A couple of runners in the team had some problems, but I ran well and the team finished 9th - a bit down on last year's silver medal. Results.

Next up was the FRA Relay Champs in North Wales. My Mercia team were defending champions, but we were without my usual navigation leg partner Andi Davies. Unfortunately on the day we were no match for Dark Peak, but we ended up 2nd. Results.

My last race for SNO was Smålandskavlen. I was placed in the 2nd team (presumably because it was my last race for SNO...). I ran the 2nd leg, with 4th fastest leg time, and a good performance. Results here. The tracking for the last leg was quite exciting.