Yeah... I know it's been over a week after the EYOC 2008 now but I really had to catch up with my school subjects.On Thursday we actually arrived in the competition centre - that is Wangen an der Aare. We slept in the 18-person rooms in the military unit. We also attended a model event this day. The map was fairly similar to the one I ran on during Orienteering Festival in Czech Republic this year. We all knew it was going to be much tougher technically, as well as physically the following day!
I am coming into the finish as fast as possible, the spectators are all screaming. I can hardly tell the difference between the Polish words and some other screamed in sophisticated languages. I am punching the 'finish', the time is 59:59. Yes, it's one second less than an hour! The winning time was predicted to be about 55 mins, so it can't be that poorly... It's been the 6th result so far. Only(?) 15 competitors more beat and overtook me and I ended on the 21st place. My Ministry of Sport assumption was to place between 1. and 24. As you can see I did manage! Nevertheless, this result would not please me that much if I had been in the e.g. April's shape. I mean MUCH better shape. But as for that day it was quite okay...
During the course I also had a really painful adventure. I was running downhill just behind the young French girl. Suddenly, she stumbled on one end of a tremendous branch (lying on the ground) and the other end went up hitting... my right groin! So close to my ... (Check the word
groin to understand!)
Finally, I must say it was NOT that difficult and tiring I had thought it was supposed to be!
I had to wake up at 6 a.m. It was not the problem as I am quite accustomed to it but the first impression while leaving the building for breakfast was really frightening! It was extremely dark and the lower part of the fog was not higher than 1 meter above the ground... I just ate a small breakfast, prepared the things and jumped to the organizers' bus. In fact, what else could I do?! It was becoming brighter and brighter but the fog wasn't willing to fade out.
I must admit I was stressed a little about my performance before the start and went to Toi-Toi a little bit too late. Consequently my warm-up was TOO short and inaccurate. That's why I was told off by our headcoach.
On the first leg it is essential not to lose touch with the leaders at the first (usually forked) controls. I was fully concentrated and determined to do so and had an almost clear race to the 7th control. There some huge problems appeared:
The course-setter made an enormous forking at the 8th control while the 7th and 9th were the same or fairly similar. It's funny I saw the two other controls (8A&B) but got into trouble at the latter of them as I momentarily lost contact with the map and didn't know if it was the correct stream I was standing next to. I lost some time and had to catch up with the leaders quickly. I nearly managed and finished 8th 1'10 behind the Estonian runner.
Slavko had a really good race and crossed the finish line as the 6th one from the second leg. Rino was running with the Dane who took the bronze medal. Unfortunately, they made a different route choice. Moreover, while crossing the spectator's passage he was greatly exhausted and didn't manage to fight for the small podium.
I felt a bit disappointed but I do not blame anyone apart from me. If I had finished 30sec earlier, it could have been considerably different...
Sprint maps - not for me this time, maybe in a year.
All things considered, I had a great time in Switzerland. Our national team was really well-suited to each other this time and only thanks to this atmosphere we all managed to perform so well (5th place in Nation's Cup). I came back home with a head full of important conclusions and willing to train much harder to let my star shine bright in Serbian EYOC 2009 in July!
