HK 2009 and summer holidays summary

I competed in 6 stages of Hungaria Cup 2009:
1. (middle) - 9th place (poor race)
2. (long) - 10th (hopeless)
3. (middle) - 8th (quite good)
4. (sprint) - 2nd (good)
5. (long) - 38th (...)
6. (middle) - 3rd (very good).
I must admit that this orienteering journey had more in common with fun than real competition for me. I am pretty satisfied with my whole stay in Hungary!

My O-holidays were really long. I practised orienteering in lots of different places: Złoty Potok, Kopaonik, Młynne, Aalborg, Novy Bor, Przemyśl and Miskolc. I gained much experience and now am taking some rest before the 2nd part of the Polish O-season. I plan to begin with my trainings the day after tomorrow:)

O-pleasure...;-)

The last stage was my best race this week! The terrain was brilliant! I just love these sink holes - they're so easy and nice to orienteer:) I made just 3 minor mistakes: looking for the 4th control too early, doing too much climbing to the 5th control and running too high before the 8th control. I was 3rd and lost 1:28 to Olej who had an almost clear race but he must have pushed much harder than me. What's more, I could have felt really tired after having competed in 17 races during 19 days!

Too fast and got furious:-D

On Saturday in the evening I took part in a nice Microsprint competition. Just before the start we had thought it was going to be very easy but we hadn't known how wrong we had been! The courses turned out to be extremely fast and I passed everything on the map so quickly...
I didn't manage to qualify for the final because of an over-a-minute-mistake to the 11th control. However, the organizers prepared more maps and we were able to run the Men's Final course as well. There was only one difference - we had no control point (9th) in the fountain!;)

The biggest hangover in my life!

The 5th stage of Hungaria Cup 2009 was a long distance. It was no good news for me because I think I had never felt so bad in my life before! The reason for this feeling was the so-called 'Day of my life' the previous day. I must say that vomiting just before the race is not a funny experience... AT ALL!
That day I fought to... survive in the forest. I did not run, I just walked and lost only some 45 minutes to the winner. Technically, my race was almost perfect; I made only one mistake while leaving the 11th control;)

However, shaking hands with Dwojager and hearing that I am his greatest fan was an unbelievable award for me:-)

AMAZING RELAY!

I know that relay competitions are very interesting and gripping all the time, but I could not have expected such emotions! And there was not only one reason...

Firstly, a dream race of Wojtek Dwojak on the first leg coming 6th to the finish only some 20 seconds behind Dmitry Tsvetkov from Russia. Then, on the result list we could see that Wojtas was 5th because the Russian runner was disqualified! And the new leader was Pavel Gvozdev from... Israel! However, this DSQ turned out to be a mistake made by organisers' computers and the Russian runners were in the game again, fortunately;)
Then, some bad luck in the forest and a worse, longer forking for Banan and 14th place after 2nd leg.
Finally, the last deciding leg! I hope everyone knows now what happened in the forest. Martin Johansson from Sweden got injured and 3 runners stopped to help him. These heroes were Thierry Gueorgiou from France, Anders Nordberg from Norway and Michal Smola from the Czech Republic. They gave up fighting for the medals and saved Martin's life! I think the very whole world is proud of You! Matthias Merz, who was some minutes behind, didn't see them and went on to the finish. Having had a really brilliant race (the best time of all!), he secured the gold medal for Switzerland. However, they didn't actually want this title and I am not surprised at all. The next runners came to the finish afterwards and a real struggle for the 6th (diploma) place began! There were 5 challengers but only one of them could win. Kowal punched the last control as the second one and started a magnificent, incredibly fast and strong finish. When he was passing a large group of Polish supporters (me amongst them), we already knew he was going to win the race just some meters ahead of the rivals. Nevertheless, these 'some meters' were so important for us all!

CONGRATULATIONS POLAND!

Fabulous sprint in Miskolc!

The terrain of the sprint race during the 4th stage of Hungaria Cup was absolutely brilliant! I just love this kind of sprints! It was a great fun to run (quite:P) fast in the streets of Miskolc. I enjoyed my every move and even making mistakes made me happy:) Even happier because thanks to it I could spent more time on this wonderful course:D and the place (2nd, just some 28secs behind Mate) is surprisingly high as well...:-)

Cilu, do you remember this map?;-)

The arena of the 3rd stage was well-known for me. I hope some of my friends from M16 class 2 years ago know why:)

What about my race... it was quite good comparing to the previous ones. I made only one mistake bigger mistake of about 1 minute to the 4th control. Although I didn't feel strong physically that day, I am quite satisfied with my performance and believe in myself a bit more again!

My technique sucks!

The first 2 stages of Hungaria Cup 2009 were ones of my worst races during this season.

On the 1st day I started incredibly fast. Unfortunately, the 2nd control was one of the two controls on the whole course (2nd and 5th) where you just had to slow down a bit. Of course, I did NOT do it and lost almost 6 minutes!!! Then, my only goal was to finish the race...
(map: HK 2009 1st stage and WOC 2009 middle qual)

The next stage was carried out on WOC 2009 long qual map and it was a long distance race for us as well. I wanted to calm down and run a bit slower in order to read the map precisely and got to know that my mistakes are not caused by my running speed. So by what?! I don't really know it yet... Just look at the controls: 1st (nearly 2mins lost), 8th (more than 3') and 13th (more than 2'). What's more, I took the wrong route choice to the 7th control, but ran pretty fast and lost only 50secs. I don't count all the smaller mistakes...

Pride means more than the result for me...

Last weekend I took part in Grand Prix Polonia organised by Azymut Dębów near Przemyśl. The whole event consisted of 3 stages and one additional race – sprint.

On Saturday there was a long distance race prepared for us – 7km and 300m of climb. I started 4 minutes behind Grochu and caught him already at the first control! The next 3 controls we ran together and I had a great beginning of my race. However, then a real disaster came… The map wasn’t precise enough for me on my way to the 5th control and I lost over 10mins(!) to the best split. Unfortunately, I was terribly disappointed and lost my whole motivation to push hard. I began to jog and continue the course just to avoid being disqualified because it was a 3-day competition… Nevertheless, I didn’t manage to run without any stupid mistakes and got the 8th place, but it didn’t really matter for me...


The second day I was incredibly motivated to win the middle distance and wanted to reduce my time waste to the 3rd place (Cilu). I had a very good race catching Wojtek P. at the 4th control. I made only 2 mistakes (wrong route choice to the 4th control and too much to the right just before this control; being too low near the 6th control and running too far). I managed to win with the advantage of 16 seconds over Gleb Tikhonov from Russia. However, I gained only 2:28 comparing to Cilu and he was to start 5:43 before me in the handicap the following day.


In the evening there was a short sprint race waiting for us. It was a pity that there were only 7 controls on the course of 1,8km. I took wrong way at the 1st long leg and met Rysiu, who started 30secs behind me, at the control. Then, I thought the 3rd control is the second one and ran towards it. I lost some 25 seconds and couldn’t find any reason to run fast afterwards... I just finished my race and ended in the very middle of the men’s category.


The last stage was a handicap of 6,1km and 250m of climb. My place after 2 first stages was 6th. I started some 1:30 behind Patela, some 3mins behind Wojtek P. and 5:43 behind Cilu. The leader started over 15mins ahead of me;) I speeded up at the beginning and had problems reaching the 1st control, but Patela’s problems were much bigger and I caught him already at this control. Then, I ran quickly to the green and tried to get through it. It wasn’t the best decision since I lost almost one minute and got my nose cut, bled and hurt. Controls no. 3, 4 and 5 went pretty good. At the 6th control the next huge mistake came, because I mixed the re-entrants and lost about 40secs. The 7th control was easy and at the next one I decided to push harder in order not to run with Patela the rest of the course. What’s more, at the same leg I saw Wojtek P. who was running back to the 7th control as he forgot to punch it. It boosted my motivation because I knew that at least the 4th place was waiting for me and I tried to catch Cilu as soon as possible. I felt really exhausted at the next controls, but saw him on the fields near the 11th control. However, he still had some 2mins advantage over me. I ran with no significant mistakes till the 15th control, where I lost nearly two minutes and my hope for the podium place completely disappeared. I came to the finish knowing I was fourth and I was not wrong...


In fact, I did not deserve the 3rd place, so the results were very fair. The only thing that consoled me was 200PLN which I won for the 3rd place in Galicja Orienteering Tour general classification.
The very same day I jumped to Wielkopolska’s bus and made my way to Miskolc in order to be the part of WOC 2009 and compete in Hungaria Cup.......

95 controls punched and 1 mispunched...

Yesterday we came back from Novy Bor, where we took part in a 5-day competition - Bohemia Orienteering 2009. The whole stay in Czech Republic was really wonderful; we all gathered lots of experience, had the opportunity to run in very well-mapped and interesting terrains and compare with the best Czech runners.

We got 2 training maps to run at.

Below I present maps from the 5 stages with a deep analysis on each of them.

Before the last day (handicap) my places were: 5th, 3rd (5 seconds to the winner!), 3rd and 4th. That's why I was 3rd in the overall standings, nearly 6mins behind the 2nd and 3:25 ahead of the 4th. I made a solid and fast (especially at the beginning) performance and came 3rd into the finish. However, I realised I had punched the wrong control! For the very first time in my life... That's a shame, but I am really satisfied with my races in Czech Republic as I got to know I am quite self-confident in the forest and my O-technique is at a high level:) I only need to work more strength in my legs for the second part of the season.

On Sunday, after all the competitions, we organized a club beer relay race in our gym. We had lots of fun and were ready to go back home the following day...

First camp before JWOC 2010

Yesterday I came back from Denmark. We spent there 6 lovely days. We trained on maps similar (to some extent) to the ones we are to run at during JWOC 2010 in Aalborg.
I have not much time since today I am going to Czech Republic to take part in Bohemia 2009!

I don't really know why some of these maps below are turned around...