8th place in WOC tough long distance

The last individual race of this year world champs was the yesterday’s long distance: The terrain was a little bit more open than expected but it was still a very physically demanding race. Before the start, I felt quite self confident and ready for the fight for this event. The shape seemed ok but my technical performance wasn’t clean: I did quite many mistakes from the first control to the last one!

 

Looking theinteresting analysis from World of O (thanks Jan Kocbach for his great job!), we can easily understand some of the mistakes:

Even if I was fast enough close to the 1^st control, I missed almost 1 minute not accurate when looking for the control in the area:

On the 1^st real long leg, as I was not sharp when following the compass after crossing the track: I got stock in front of green losing a lot of time trying to find a right way:

  

Some legs went well like the 2^nd long leg:

Then, some other mistakes around controls (like wrong directions when leaving controls) and not optimal route-choices cost me a quite a lot of precious time, like these-ones:

Red choice around was a bit long

I even miss on the way to the last control don’t following the compass missing some lucidity:

(Results, map with GPS tracking)

Finally, I finished in the 8^th position which is a good result for me (the best one in internal long distance) even if can be frustrated for all my avoidable mistakes! It’s still much much better than my unforgivable miss punched spectator control of the sprint…

Tomorrow, it’s time for the relay where, as the reserve, I will be the 1^st supporter of French team world champion last year!

Live steaming from 11:30

World Orienteering Champs in Lausanne

This year, the biggest orienteering event of the season started last Saturday with the sprint in the Olympic capital:

Although I had not shown a good form in international sprint events this season before WOC (EOC sprint was catastrophic and too many route-choice mistakes in St-Galle world cup), I felt ready and quite confident to face this competition thank to solid sprint performance and good preparation in France.

The qualification was held in between the building of the University of Lausanne and the EPFL. It was a rather classic campus-sprint race where the main technique was to decide which side to go around buildings without big traps; whereas we could expect a very tricky orienteering challenge with routes in different levels. I achieved the main goal to qualify for the final quite well as I was the fastest of my qualification heat.

(Result, map)

On the afternoon, it was serious things with the final: The course was really challenging with decisive route choices decision right from the beginning so it was a bit confusing if we would like to start too fast... Starting in the last position, my race went OK event-if I’ve done some hesitations, passages missed and all my route-choices wasn’t optimal, so I crossed the finish line with the 5^th best time rather satisfied of my performance but behind the Swiss domination. However, it was before I realized that I forgot to punch the easiest control of the course: I MISS PUNCHED the spectator control! :-(  I could almost run on it as it was in the middle of the compulsory route in the arena but completely forgot it… Finally, I continue series of MP in sprint in important competitions (after JWOC 2007, WOC qualif 2009, WUOC 2010 …) almost always around the arena. I may think to change something in my sprint technique routine or focus?

(Split-times results, Map with GPS, , Video streaming from Norway)

Then, after this huge disappointment, it was important to refocus for the next event: the long qualification on Sunday. In a more open and runable forest than expected, it went quite well for me even-if I got lock some times in some green areas and I took my ticket for the final with the 3^rd time of my heat.

(Results)  

So now, it’s time for some rest days cheering French team-mates in middle distance before the long distance final on Thursday thanks to the good live coverage.

Last Swiss-rigorous preparation before World champs!

           After the European champs in Sweden, it was a quite dense period with a lot of competitions (and some important things at school too with exams and projects-reports as always in June: tough but it must be good to come back to the reality!).

          Just the weekend after EOC, we had some selection races with the French team in the nice but challenging maps of the Jura Mountain. There we can also compete with many strong international orienteers so it was really good to compeer routes and see what to improve in that kind of terrain. On the Saturday, it was a middle distance competition and it went quite well for me with no big mistakes and rather good route-choices.  (See the interesting article of  O'training.net)

On Sunday, it was a ‘short long distance’ (around 65’ for the winner) in the tricky Jura terrain too. It went a little worse for me this time as I’ve done a whole loop in the wrong side before realizing my mistakes (~5’ missed…)

Then, The 8^th of June, we had our sprint selection race for WOC in the street of Villard-de-Lans were I won the test-race and I took my first ticket for Lausanne with Vinc, Lucas, Amélie, Celine and Léa (see selected French team down).

           The weekend of the 9^th and 10^th of June, it was the Middle and club French championship in the south of the Vercors mountain. There the terrains and maps are also really challenging. The middle distance was interesting and we had to stay careful in this rocky ground to decide the right route choices and to properly find the control. It went well for me and I took the French champs title!

(Map & Results)

      The Club French Championship (CFC) must be the best orienteering event in France: it’s almost the ‘French Jukola’ ;) where all the French club meet and compete on 4 different leagues (more chances to get medals :p ). For an individual sport as orienteering, it’s very fun to run relay and to fight for a team and even for the club! On this event, the main particularity is the team composition: it should represent the whole club. That why in the 1^st league, it’s a 8-leg relay where it should be at least 3 women with 1 young (under 18) and one master (over 35) + 1 young + 1 master. Then it’s only 3 places left for elite runners. That why it could be a lot of changes during the race as the teams don’t launch there ‘rocket’ at the same time… For some years, I have the chance to run the last leg in a quite strong team fighting for medals in the 1^st leagues: It makes the challenges even nicer to try to get the best result-position for the team (before that, I was also really proud to run another leg in this team). My team has done an amazing job so I started in a perfect 3^rd position quite close to the first competitors. So I run very offensively to tried to catch times and places but I may have forgotten to read the map and to orienteer cleanly so it leads to many mistakes and I lost time instead of catching it: Finally, we took the satisfying bronze medal confirming the good shape of Orient’Express club!

 (Article on OE 42 web page)

(Map)

           The next weekend, it was the famous Jukola in Finland where I’m still impressed to see how huge can be orienteering. Even if this event took place very close to Helsinki, it was a really nice terrain and a quite wild forest with a lot of bare-rock on the ills top. I was also running the last leg with my Swedish club OK Hällen.

And my team-mate had done a good job before giving me the relay in a good start position with the possibility to catch up other teams. The beginning of my race was ok so I could catch some runners but after some mistakes, I was running in a big group with clubs like KOK or Rehns BK. This group were growing control after control… Then, as I had the good idea to take a different route choice for a long leg and as I missed the control, I lost the group some hundred meters before the finish and I couldn’t catch it again. Finally we took the 30^th place that is an OK result (if you compare to the 1 650 teams of the start line) even if I’m not very satisfied of my performance (I didn’t lose any places but I was running with the 23^rd before my last mistake).

(Results + maps GPS but I didn’t run with GPStracking)

           On the following weekend, it was 2 world-cup stages in Switzerland with a middle distance on Saturday and the Post-finance sprint on Sunday. For the middle-distance, the Swiss organizers found some piece of forest still unmapped (quite rare in Switzerland) on an ill slope whereas the sprint took part in the city streets of St Gallen.

The middle went well for me in spite of some mistakes (like 1^st and 8^th control) and wrong route-choices (control 10 to the left) in the beginning. Then, my speed seemed fast enough as I lost only 1 second to the leader from the 10^th control to the end.

(Results + maps GPS : I didn’t run with GPS tracking again)

  Finally, I took a very satisfying 5^th place that is my best performance in middle distance in World cup and it confirm all the solid performances I did in this kind of format this year in France (Selections races, French champs…)

            The post-finance sprint is always a really nice competition to take part because of the impressive and spectacular organization: we are like stars in the arena when we run in the middle of the noisy spectators! It’s also fun to get sharing at almost every controls: not that useful in orienteering. The course was really interesting and it was sometime tricky to find the best route-choices. And that was my biggest mistakes as I took bad decision to the 5 and 6 and I lost a lot of time there (~ 2 times 15’’). Finally, the speed was ok and I took the 12^th position quite close to the top 6 (7’’) but with still a margin to the lead (47’’). So there are still some correction to make and it should be ok for WOC.

(Results, map with tracking GPS)

          The last but not least test-race was the long distance close to the WOC Long and relay area held last Wednesday with many other national teams. It was a little bit tough for the French runners to start the earliest in such green terrain so we should fight with the vegetation and make tracks in the overgrowth. However, it was a perfect preparation for WOC to see what to expect for and we could learn a lot of such race.

(World of o article)

I’ve finally got my second ticket for WOC long distance and all the French team is now decided (See below). Now, one week left before the world champs in Lausanne, so we arrive in the ‘last strait line’ of the preparation where the goal is to be ready the D-day and we will see what’s happens!

European Champs: Bronze medal in Relay

Up & down and up again!

The end of the EOC program was quite tough for me with the Long and sprint finals and the relay within 3 days in the row. After a satisfying 10^th place in long, my sprint race was catastrophic:

I didn’t’ feel in good shape, but my technical performance was much worse than my physical abilities. I think that I forgot to orienteer or maybe I was doing it in the wrong way (reading the map late or not in right time…) so it leads to many mistakes on route-choices and searching controls + I even miss the second map at the map exchange (climbing the stairs, going down and up again and I finally went but in the wrong way…) and I finished in the 40^th position. To conclude, it was a real disappointment for me especially because I have done several bad performances in sprint lately whereas I have been focus on that type of races for the last few years’ world champs… So now, 2 months left before the WOC to adjust the technique (mental?) (GPS, Results and TV streaming)

Furthermore, I have been sick for some times and it went worse on Saturday evening so we thought at that time that I couldn’t run the relay, but we still waited one resting night to see how it would evolve. As it was much better on Sunday morning, we decide that I run the first leg of the relay even if the doctor evaluates my shape at 85% of the max. Was it a good choice?

Relay bronze medal!

Before the very exiting start of the relay under the impressive jumping ramp of Falun, I felt in quite good shape (much better than the day before) so it sounded good for the team. We were strongly motivated to make a good result and at least to keep the silver medal that we won 2 years ago in Bulgaria! The first part of my race was as good as expected where I stock to the order of coach Kenneth: I was staying safe and in control behind the leader on mostly every important route-choices without taking many individual initiative although I went some time alone to my own forking controls. It was good to be in the leading group but on the last forking part, we split the group and we were together with J. Prochazka (CZE) deciding to speed-up a little on the last long rout choice to come close to the jumping ramp. Finally, I stayed in the lead until the change-over even if I was running really carefully to every last controls. So it was an amazing feeling to enter the noisy arena in the lead with such a great atmosphere of so many spectators. Then, my 2 team-mates P. Adamski and F. Gonon also made a perfect job and we kept in the leading group during the entire relay fighting for the victory until the last meters. To finish, a fence rout-choice and the impressive speed of the Suisse-guy M. Kyburz and the ‘almost’ Suisse A. Holmberg (SWE) decided the podium and we proudly took the bronze medal and showed again that the French team has a really strong relay team (even without our leader Tero who was injured at home).

(Relay results, 1^st leg runners GPS tracking and very interesting TV streaming)

EOC long distance: top 10

Today, it was an interesting but tough long distance where I did a quite solid performance even-if it was not perfectly clean (GPS tracking) and almost 6 minutes behind the leader O. Lundanes, so there are still some improvements to do!
But a 10th place in European Champs is a really good result for me! (Results) Now, let’s focus on tomorrow fast sprint (live from 13:30)

GPS

 

EOC qualifications are done!

This week, there is the first really important event of the season with the EOC (European Orienteering Championships) in the beautiful terrains of the famous Vasaloppet area in Sweden. Firstly, we competed the qualification races and we had to be in the top 17 of our heat to get a ticket for the finals. It went OK for me as I’m qualified for the final of both long distance and sprint even if my orienteering technique was not that clean as you can see my route to control n°5 on my GPS tracking for the long distance and split-times results; and as I start a little bit fast and miss 45’’ on the 1st control of the sprint(Sprint map and results).

Now, serious things are coming with the finals with the Middle-distance tomorrow (As a spectator for me), Long on Friday, Sprint on Saturday and relay on Sunday. That will be very interesting to follow with a good live coverage. You can also read some nice articles on the French federation website to follow the good performances of the French team.

"Les voyages forment la jeunesse "

It’s a famous French motto that we can also use in orienteering as we travel a lot to find primordial experiences to improve our skills. Indeed, a main particularity of our sport is to looking for new terrains and new maps to train and compete on; that why I’ve been in many different places the whole winter.



First, as every winter, we have 2 weekend of training camp per month with the French team from November to March: where we’ve been on the top of the Jura mountain, In the Fontainebleau forest full of big rock-block (paradise for climbers), in Auvergne volcanoes tricky areas, on the larzac plateau (famous for the Roquefort ewes and the rock labyrinths in orienteering), in the web of ravines close to Sisteron, around the big depressions of the Figeac area, and we have even been visited some villages in the Provence for some sprint trainings…




Furthermore, we have been looking for warm weather in Portugal with the French team where we run some challenging competition: POM and we could already see the competitors the most in shape after the winter. Then we could also train in soft sand dune forest to improve our technique in open terrain to be well prepared for terrain like we can meet for EOC.




As it was not enough, I’ve added some extra training camps: I had the opportunity to ski one week on the famous WOC plateau of La Feclaz (it’s also very nice when it’s fool of snow). I spend also some days in Alicante region for some competitions and trainings on the sea side with relatively warm weather (where it was really good to be when there was cold record in all over the Europe). Lately, we have also been in Pegerinos in the North of Madrid with some French team colleagues to find interesting terrains and really nice to train in.



Furthermore, it was important to show that orienteering is not only walking in forests to looking for mushroom (and it’s not that easy to prove it in France!). So we also run some local mountain-running competitions:



Now it’s time to compete!
In the end of March, it was time for some selection races for the next European Champs. That why we have been close to Bordeaux. It went quite well for me and I took my ticket for Dalarna in Sweden next May. (Results: Sp, Md, Ld; )
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Finally, we came in training camp in Switzerland to be ready for the WOC next summer. To reach this goal, we’ve done good works like: vegetation specific trainings, some fast trainings with other national teams where we could show French style (results), and of course: morning jog every morning to wake up the bears of Bern. We had also the opportunity to run some Suisse national competition with strong competitors to see where is our current level and also what improve: Indeed, there is some work left... (Suisse National competitions: Results Sunday Monday/ GPS of monday)
Now, after staying mostly in south Europe, it’s time to turn to Sweden for the famous Tiomila and the EOC.
Last but not least: never forget this other French famous motto: ''En avril, ne te découvres pas d'un fil''! (video news)