JWOC 2009 Long Distance

A thunder storm had raged all the previous night and by the time we arrived at the start the mountain sides were flowing with water torrenting down every available re-entrant and path, tiny ditches now in full spate.

As my start time approached i became slightly nervous but at the same time I thought "this is what i have worked for all year, why shouldn't i enjoy it?"

"It takes ages to get anywhere on ?@^!#* 1:15,000"

Number one went terribly; I reached my attackpoint and my mind in an over excited voice told me I was wrong, 2 minutes running aimlessly in a damp forest slows you down, back to my attack point, used my compass and there is was. (More swearing). The first seven controls carried a similar theme and vocabulary. After a very scenic sight-seeing tour of the surrounding countryside I copped myself on. I concentrated on my plan and direction: every control had an attack point and catching feature and it was all going so well until....

Butterfly loops are thrown in by planners who hate orienteerers. But it was going great - I was hitting all the controls through the butterfly and back into the wilderness of unfamilliar forest, yet something was clicking in the back of my mind like a broken part. "Its probably just the exhaustion" I told myself, as the heavens opened above and thunder exploded above my head.

At the spectator control I was tired but still going well, although the makers of energy gel need to create a flavour that isn't reminicent of battery acid.

The final loop was cold, the wind crept in among the trees at the edge of the forest and I was saturated. I nearly fell up the hill to the final control and limped as fast as I could up the run which had now become a boggy trench. But the disturbance was still in the back of my head telling me that something was wrong.

I reported to download, the splits paper looked weird and someone had written wrong order on the bottom, it all made sense: during the butterfly loops that had blurred by back in the forest I had swapped the loops. I felt really hollow, not really sad, more disappointed. How difficult could it be: 12 obviously comes after 11, but no time to think of that now. I was beginning to become genuinly hypothermic, I arrived at the baggage drop to find my bag in a puddle of water, my lunch flowed from its paper bag. The tents would have been barely suitable for a garden party and a kind hungarian girl untied my shoe laces because my hands had stopped working. I sank into reserve mode somewhere between sleep and death, thinking 'next year it's all to train for.'

The Irish junior squad will be resting tomorrow for a full report of us sleeping and lazing about see the irish junior squad blog.

Niall out!

(Note: It's surprisingly common among top orienteers to make mistakes on the butterfly loop, most notably multiple world champion Thierry Guergiou in the World Cup race last year (missed a loop) and also World Champs bronze medallist Kajsa Nilsson in this years Nordic Champs).

See the men's course here (click on the map to view the full course).

M20 results (full results here):

1. Gustav Bergman, Sweden 65:55

2. Soren Bobach, Denmark 69:17

3. Martin Hubmann, Switzerland 69:25

49. Nick Simonin 92:51

97. Ruairi Short 107.12

Kevin O'Boyle Dsq

Niall Ewen Dsq