Euromeeting – a knock-out sprint day

The past weekend was spent in Kolding, Denmark, running the Euromeeting and pre-WOC 2020. This as a part of my preparations for the world cup final which will be held in 1,5 weeks from now. The programme was from friday to sunday with sprint relay, knock-out sprint and a normal individual sprint.

Saturday was the day for the knock-out sprint. It started at 9 am in the morning with the qualification. I did my normal warm-up routines and used the warm-up map area.

~3,8 km (area diameter 0,6 km)

The qualification went well. I tried to cruise through the course and waste as little energy as possible but still to reach the goal of being among the 12th best. I did some smaller route choice mistakes, but was in full control and managed to take a clear win in my heat. However, it did not matter as the selections for the quarter finals were done via world ranking and not qualification time. After the race I did some proper cool down at the arena which was the only place allowed.

~2,2 km (1 round ~120 m)

As I had the best world ranking among the starters at Euromeeting I was put in the first quarter final which started 15.24. So, at 14.45 it was time to start the warm up for the 2nd race of the day. This time back and forth at the track in the quarantine for the quarter final.

~4 km (area diameter 100 m)

The quarter final went smooth in the beginning. I was in front, cruising, but then the Finish girls started to push harder, but I felt in control and towards the 3rd last I came up in front again due to better map reading. Unfortunately my map reading to the 2nd last was not the best as I had not seen a closed passage, so I went wrong. I realised the mistake quite fast, but as the group was almost all together at the previous control all the other 5 runners had passed me when I turned back. I was therefore last with just a couple of 100 meters to go. Luckily I had a lot of power so I passed 3 of them rather quick. This meant I didn’t need to sprint all the way to the finish as I had secured the 3rd place, which however was the last qualifying spot, but still the one who brought me to the first semifinal which I wished for.

Then it was time for a quick cool down inside quarantine 2 which was the place to be after finishing the quarter final.

~1,4 km (1 round ~190 m)

As I had qualified for the semifinal I had to move to quarantine 3, which was inside an old barn. This was also the ”rather limited” warm-up area for the semifinal.

~2 km (1 round ~80 m)

The semifinal started 17.07 (half an hour late), and it went all well. Me and Karro was put in the same semi and it was only going to be 2 runners who qualified for the final in each heat, so we knew we had to be nr 1 and 2. We tried to push quite hard from the beginning but it was a challenge to get any gaps as it was lots of controls and also a map change which made the course tricky. I did one route choice mistake in the middle of the course and had to chase some seconds, and towards the 2nd last control I was 3rd behind Martina Ruch and Karro. However I trusted my sprint speed and also due to some good map reading I could pass both of them out of that control and after a quick speed up Karro and me got a gap so we could cruise the last meters to the finish as nr 1 and 2 which meant both qualified for the final! Mission completed, but it was a quite tough one. The margins are not big in races like this.

Once again a quick cool down, for the 3rd time this day and 2nd time round that small house in quarantine 2.

~1,4 km (1 round ~190 m)

Once again we had to enter the barn for the last quarantine of the day and also the last short warm up for the day. Now it was time for the final which started 18.00.

~1 km (1 round ~80 m)

The final also went well, but it is very hard to stick to the pre-decided tactics as you never know what the others will do and when people do mistakes or not. I was sometimes in the lead, but at the arena passage also 4th. I did some good routes after the passage and got the lead again. However I did some minor hesitations towards the 2nd last and lost the grip on the map and did not manage to chose the planned route to the last control. During this hesitations Karro passed me, and then it was full speed towards the last. She was very quick out from that one and even if I managed to catch some meters towards the finish line, the sprint was a little bit too short and I finished just half a meter behind her after a very good sprint by both of us. I love it when it is tight, and it is interesting how small the margins are. It was also nice with a Swedish triple as Alva finished 3rd and two good runs in the men class by Isak and Anton who finished 2nd and 3rd.

As it was one more race to prepare for the day after this one, we draged ourselves out on the 4th and last cool down for the day. Once more around the garden! (Even though we at this time may have been allowed to run somewhere else as the competition was over…)

~1,7 km (1 round ~190 m)

Well, this was a day of a knock out sprint. In total 26 km running, and the warm up for the afternoon started before 3 pm and ended more than 3,5 hours later, around 6.30 pm. As you can see we are often offered very limited spaced for warm up and cool down during international sprint races. This time if was extra ordinary with the warm up for the semifinal and final inside the barn (with a concrete floor) with a maxium round of approximately 80 meters. You have to be ready for whatever.

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The afternoon before the knock out sprint we ran a sprint relay. I ran in Sweden’s 1st team with Max-Peter Bejmer, Eric Börjeskog and Karro. I did quite a stressed race as I had troubles getting into the map, but managed to stick close to the lead all the way anyway. In the end I tried to close the small gap to the Finish 1st team runner Maija Sianoja, but she was strong and I did two smaller mistakes, so I did not manage to reach her and changed over to Max as 2nd, 5s behind. Max did a very good race, changed in shared lead with Finland and with 20s down to the 3rd team. Eric also ran well, but did some smaller mistakes and some other teams were running fast, but he still kept us close to the favourite teams and sent out Karro as 4th, 19s behind. Karro delivered as always on the last leg and brought us all the way up to a victory! Always so much fun to win a relay!

Photo: Danish Orienteering

The day after the knock out sprint it was an individual sprint. My legs felt very tired after completing the full knock out the day before. (It is actually a bit unfair if there is important races already the morning after a knock out as it is quite uneven if you do 1, 2, 3 or 4 races that day. 4 races and 26 km of running can kill your legs quite a lot…) However, I managed to find some energy and push hard all the way even though it hurt. I did some route choice mistakes and also a control mistake on the 2nd last control. Again it was a tight fight against Karro and again she had the margins one her side. I was 3s behind on 2nd spot. I just love our tight fights! All in all a great weekend with important preparations for the world cup final in 1,5 week.

Photo: Øystein K. Østerbø

Maps and results can be found here.
The Swedish team for the world cup final can be found here.