WOC 2007, Kyiv

22/08/05, Middle Race by Allan Bogle, best brit and superstar

WRE: CnoptnBHE opiEHTyBaHHR (or something like that)

Relevance to WOC: Middle

This was day 2 of the competition, however it was my first day as I was recovering from the strange food/ radiation poisoning the day before.

Being a World ranking event the pressure was on, with us guys all wanting to beat Dan M as he had the most World ranking points. With relatively pleasant forest surrounding us in the assembly are the stage was set for a great race!!

And in fact none of us were disappointed after we picked up our maps and got down to business! That was until we left the 12^th control!! I will come back to that infamous 12^th control later in the report.

This was a well-mapped area and a decently planned course (some might argue that after 12 the planning went down hill – I would say the planner just put another challenge in our way). From the ‘triangle’ to 12 we were running through some very nice moraine terrain with varying degrees of runnability as there where areas of bracken, however this never really seemed a problem. I found that good direction out off controls was essential in this area as it was possible lose direction in areas of negative terrain. Although this area is sandy in places (especially on tracks) it was never a problem.

OK, now on to the fun part!! Up until half way between 12 and 13 the area had been really good fun and pleasant to orienteer through, there had been nothing to prepare us from what lay ahead! And that was killer nettles!! Forget about taping the front of your o-bottoms I would concentrate on taping your heads!! We have all orienteered in areas where nettles have been a problem, but what I wasn’t prepared for was the sheer height of them and that amongst them was very thick bracken, making keeping your direction very difficult indeed, because you are so busy bashing through! (at WOC I think if we were faced with undergrowth like this it probably would not be such a problem because either it will have bashed down already or that adrenalin would get us through it). Where I think the planner of this race was clever was that most of the worst of the undergrowth was avoidable, in one instance (13-14) it was possible to go out of the control backwards onto a path that would take you around setting up a perfect place to attack the control from. So it is important in areas like this not to be narrow sighted, as there are often ways to ‘out smart’ the terrain.

Relevant Techniques: running on compass; knowing when to go around

Physically: an area like this requires fast running in the typical moraine areas, and it requires a lot of aggression through the undergrowth (whilst keeping a steady head at the same time).

NOTE: Allan Bogle was the best Brit in this race and Dan Marston was the last Brit so we were all able to capitalise on his World Ranking points, even ‘coach’ Jon Musgrave.

posted by daniel @ 1:09 pm