That's northern Italy. And that's also
Simone and her way of saying good-bye to the international orienteering
community and the home crowds. I spent fantastic 1,5 weeks on a training camp in WOC 2014
regions in Trentino and Veneto with the Finnish team before going to Baden for
the World Cup final. Training camp itself was excellent in many ways but maybe
not optimal preparation for the World Cup final. Italy provided good food,
great coffee, excellent wines, gorgeous views, lovely alpine villages, fresh
mountain air and nice, runnable terrains. I just loved it all. If I ever had
thoughts whether to continue or not, Italy gave me confidence and motivation to
go on. I fancied the terrains there and feel keen to go there again.
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| Long distance race (photo Vitalii Rupp) |
There was a two-day orienteering event, 2 Giorni dell'Altopiano, in Lavarone, just next to
WOC 2014 long distance terrain, which attracted quite many international
orienteers. There was a middle distance on Saturday and a long distance
world-ranking event on Sunday. I enjoyed both races very much and was quite
pleased with my runs on both days. Middle distance was pretty straightforward
execution whereas long distance offered more route choices and small details.
In the middle I had a smooth run but tried to save my legs a bit on ascents
whereas in the long distance I ran full speed but did some small mistakes in
the circle on the second half of the course (controls 8, 9, and 18). To
controls 10 and 14 I took bad route choices and lost a little on them.
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| Middle distance race Lavarone |
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| Long distance race Lavarone |
After training camp we drove the whole way
from Asiago to Baden for the World Cup. But training twice a day in tough hilly
terrains had taken its toll and I had nothing left in my legs. Long travel and
one easier day (including a model event and a mixed sprint relay) wasn't enough
for recovery. I loved the terrain in the middle distance but I was too tired to
keep a decent pace. Also I lost 4min in total on two controls, first because I wasn't
paying attention and overshoot one of the easiest controls and then because I
simply couldn't get to number 5 (steep slope too muddy and slippery to use when
approaching the control from the right hand side). So I wasn't at all pleased with my run. World Cup final middle map
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| World Cup final Baden (photo Marc Streit) |
In the sprint I realized only afterwards
how bad my run really was. While running I had better feeling than in the
middle but because I'm not very used to sprints with climbs and stairs I had
difficulties in making the right decisions. I think I took almost all wrong
route choices and ended up running far too many stairs instead of running flat.
I tried to stay on the shortest route but it was seldom the fastest. So I lost
over a minute on four crucial route choice legs (1, 8, 12, 14) and also some hesitation here and there. It was probably one of my worst World Cup
performances but it was still great to be involved in Simone's last
international race and farewell party. She's an amazing athlete with amazing
career and we will all miss her not just because of her talent and achievements
but also because of her admirable personality. She's been such a great role
model for the sport and such a great person in every way!
World Cup final sprint map
World Cup final sprint map
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| Thank you Simone! (photo Erik Borg) |
