Saturday 9 August 2014

Silesia Grand Prix/WUOC

     Last weekend I raced in the Silesia Grand Prix which was a 5 stage competition over 4 days in the North of Czech Republic. The terrain was very enjoyable and generally fast with some slower green areas. It was very good preparation for WUOC which should be held on somewhat similar terrain. The last race of the competition was very tough because I was pretty tired after racing 4 times back to back which was really taxing on the body. I managed to have five good races where I was able to fine tune some of my orienteering techniques in preparation for WUOC. The terrain was very enjoyable which was slightly more tricky than I expected especially in the green areas and on the steep side hills.

     This is my route from stage 2 which turned out to be my best race technically and my best result (6th) of the event even though I lost some time where I shouldn't have.
Stage 2 of Silesia
     Today was the WUOC middle/relay model event. The forest was very open with great visibility and generally very flat and fast. There were also some green areas where the visibility was reduced which made it tricky and also slowed the running speed down a bit. Being colour blind the open areas in the green parts were very hard for me to see while running which added an extra challenge to reading the map and seeing what was green and what was open. The middle and relay will be harder for me as a result because the same printing will be used for the actual competitions which is a bit frustrating.
WUOC Middle/Relay Model (route)
     WUOC will start next Tuesday with the mixed sprint relay. I will run the mixed sprint relay, sprint, middle and relay. I have chosen to skip the long distance and focus on the sprint and middle instead where my chances at a better result are more promising.

Train on,
Damian

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