Orienteering International season 2011 is over!

This last 2 weekend, we finished our world-cup season 2011 with the last events in Check-Republic and in Switzerland.

After the main goal of the year for most of us: the WOC in France; it was our last chance to win some points for the World Cup ranking:
At Liberec in Czech-Republic, we run first a middle distance on the Saturday followed by a chasing start on Sunday with the start time based on the results of the middle distance. The terrain there was quite similar to our training forest in France so we weren’t like fish out water. My technical performance was OK even if I have done some mistakes especially due to bad compass directions (like at controls 3, 10 and 14) as you can see on the GPS-tracking. So I managed to take the 24^th place 3’41 behind the leader Pasi Ikonen from Finland (results).
This race had a really good live on the Czech TV as you can see here.

On the chasing start, I started on the 24th position (as you could guess if you followed well above) in a quite crowed forest. Indeed, as the middle distance results were very tight, we started very close each other. I started quite well so I could climb many places on the beginning until the changing map, but after, I did some mistakes when I was alone in the second butterfly (see GPS tracking), so many runners catch me and we finished the race in packs where I arrived in 15^th position 6’31 after the Swiss guy: Marc Lauenstein who won just before Thierry Gueorgiou (our teammate for France) (results).


The last World cup weekend was held in Switzerland (in the Jura Mountain close to the French border). It was a middle distance on Saturday, with a first part rather technical in typical karstic forest and a last part easy through fields to finish in a village some meters below. However, my performance there was really bad: I quickly catch up the British guy who started 2 minutes before me and, and that probably why I wasn’t careful enough and I left the 4th control too rapidly. That led a huge mistake on the way to the 5th where I lost more than 5 minutes. But, as it was not enough, I did another big mistake to the 14th control… (GPS and Results)

The World cup final was the Post-finance Sprint (like the last few years) in La-Chaud-de-Fonds: The atmosphere of this race is always impressive with many spectators rather noisy and it’s great to experience it as an athlete (it’s not so often to feel like a star in orienteering). There is also a good TV live. I had some troubles to begin the race, to be focus and to find the good routine: I lost some times on the beginning especially at the 3rd control and I got the 13^th place. (GPS and Results).

To conclude the international season, after I’ve taken some points during the Nordic Orienteering Tour in June, I took a respectable 10th place at WOC, and I finish rather well the season with this 2 last weekend. So I’ve finally gotten the 17^th ranking at the overall IOF world cup standings.
Even if I didn’t get any medal like last year, my improvement is still really positive as my overall World Cup ranking increase well the last few years (2008 : 110^th ; 2009 :70^th; 2010 :30^th ; 2011 : 17^th).
Now, after club relay races like 25-Manna, some rest will be good for the body before thinking to the next season…

Top 10 in World Orienteering Championship in France

This year, the World Champs were in my home country and I had a bronze medal from last year to defend, so I was very motivated to run this competition. The WOC 2011 was held in the Savoie District and I was running the shortest distance: the Sprint. Contrary to the other orienteering distances in forest, the particularity of the sprint is to get closer to the public so the courses are in urban area. The WOC sprint qualification was in the city of Aix-Les-Bains while the final was at Chambery. The particularity of the qualification terrain was a mix of wooded, parks and urban area; that why the X-talon were a perfect choice with a good grip everywhere. The main difficulties were to find the good rout choices and stay careful to avoid impassable fences and forbidden areas… Even with some mistakes and hesitations, it was no problem to get the final.
(Map)


The arena close to the qualification finish was already crowded of spectators but it was nothing to compare to the final: There, the spectacle was splendid for an impressive public! People could see us several times in the arena (already from the start) and there were also many cameras along the course and they could see us on the big screen. The course was spectacular but also interesting with passages in narrow streets and tunnels. My shape was not as good as expected maybe due to the warm sun of this day, but I’ve still done an OK race without big faults (just some small mistakes as for the 3rd and 12th and bad route choices for the 14th and 16th). That why I got the 10th place just 10 seconds to 5th place but quite far to the podium and more than 1 minute behind the impressive winner: D. Hubmann.
(Map1, Map2, Results and live video)

The other races of the World Champs were clearly dominated by the French guys with middle and long victory for T. Guergiou and a beautiful relay victory!
Finally, it was a really great and unique experience for us to run the World Champs ‘at home’ with many supporters (as friends and family) who cheered us very well; so we should remember this competition for a long time!