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WOC 2017 - perfect start, perfect end, no success

It's been almost a week since the WOC ended with relay. It took me some time to rest a bit and to think about my performances at WOC in Estonia. After all I realized I did 2 perfect races and 2 average, unfortunately the perfect races didn't pay off in the way of a good result but I am quite satisfied anyway. There is a short summary of my WOC races and also some comments on WOC 2017 in general.


Results, GPS tracking and also TV broadcasting of all WOC races can be found here: WOC live center

(to see the TV broadcasting relive you have to sign in liveorienteering first and then by clicking on the TV&GPS in live center it will take zou right to the race)

Sprint Qualification - good speed, no mistakes

My WOC started with Sprint Q. It was technically a very easy sprint and it was more or less just about running. I felt physically quite good, avoided any mistakes and I repeated my 3rd place from sprint Q in Scotland. From the splits analysis it is obvious that I was very strong on short legs but I was losing seconds on longer legs. That has not been a positive signal for the final where the men course had 4km/15 controls.


Short video from Sprint Q: here

Map with my routes: here


I was very disappointed with the terrain and also the courses of both sprint Q and sprint F at WOC 2017. Of course the qualification is not the main race but it is shame when the course is so dull. The final was a bit better but still it was like a sprint course 10 years ago (long legs with not a very complex solution. But not only the course setters are to blame. The area chosen for sprints was nice for spectators/tourists but it was almost impossible to set interesting sprint courses there. Then it is a big wonder why the organizers didn't pick a different area when they could choose from all the sprint terrains in Estonia (for example sprint area in Võru where we ran some trainings was 3x more interesting than the terrain chosen for WOC. It is ideal when the races are held close to the event center but high level courses should be the most important at WOC.


Sprint Final - a dim race

Very long legs, extremely physical course, steep hills and few controls. My legs didn't like it and my head neither. I didn't manage to get any flow during the race. I was trying to push too hard and I missed fluency and lightness. I was fighting though and it was not a bad race but it was not the perfect individual race I am still waiting for at WOC. I made some minor routechoice mistakes to controls 2, 6 and 10 but I was mostly losing physically. In the end I missed the 13th control and had to get back to punch it and Jonas Leandersson caught me by 1 minute there. At least I could show some power in the finish. 25th place is my new PB but at least top20 was reachable.


Short video from sprint F: here

Map with my routes: here


Sprint relay - team success is more than selfish ambitions

Before WOC I was pre-selected to run the mix relay but after my not a perfect sprint final the Czech coaches decided it should be Milos Nykodym running the second leg for Czech Republic in the hilly race. I respected the decision and gave my all as a fan and a team member. And what a race it was! The coaches' decision has shown up as a perfect one. Both Jana Knapová and Milos Nykodym did perfect job and the Czech team was fighting for medals. Vojta Kral got rid of Switzerland and Great Britain and suddenly we were keeping the silver position with 1 minute lead to Switzerland and Denmark. Unfortunately they had Maja Alm and Sabine Hauswirth who showed why they are the best sprinters in the World. Denisa Kosova was fighting hard. She took all the ideal routechoices but it was not enough. The medal was very close but after all the Czech quartet took "only" 4th place.


Also a short comment on the courses and terrain: interesting area with hilly ruins and a nice village. Unfortunately the course setter decided to use also a part of hilly forest. The race was then very uneven - in the most of the race chasing seconds, then in the forest easily losing lots of time by taking a bad track in the slope or getting stuck in dense forest (not talking at all about uneven forking). I agree it was interesting for spectators to see big mistakes by men in the forest but it was kind of bingo orienteering even without making the big mistakes, which is something we shouldn't be longing for in sprint orienteering, especially at WOC.


Middle - bad start, observant end

The middle distance might have been the only forest race at WOC for me and I was very motivated to do a good job and gain a place in the relay on the next day in the same terrain. Unfortunately I didn't manage a tricky first control. I was looking for the terrain objects too much and didn't rely on my compass. The area was very shallow and I missed the first control by 1 minute. Then I got back to the race taking control 2-4 well but then I made another 1min mistake in the control circle of 5th control. Then I lost my confidence and made another 40 seconds mistake to the 7th control running to the wrong control eventhough I knew it is too early to be mine. There I was caught by Lauri Sild by 2 minutes. He was doing a very good Orienteering and I learnt a lot running behind him in the dense forest. He gave me some confidence and I tried to be active, pushing him forwards and taking over when he hesitated. In the end it was enough for 22nd place but I couldn't be satisfied with my performance.


It was one of the most difficult middle distances I've ever run. Reduced visibility all the time and changing character of the terrain detailes made it a big technical challenge worth the World Champs.


Short video from middle: here

Map with my routes: here

Relay - perfect start, cruel end

I managed to do a good job on the 1st leg of big races a few times in the past and the Czech coaches believed I can repeat it again and gave me the chance to run the 1st leg at WOC again after 3 years. The atmosphere in the team was unfortunatelly not very supporting and I was quite nervous before the race. Standing on the startline I managed to get into the right concentrated mood and I started to the race confident with my skills. I managed to have everything under control throughout the race, slowing down a bit in the most tricky places. I was happy with my race sending Jan Sedivy out on 4th place just 5 seconds behind. Jan was doing a good job until the spectator leg where he turned the map to read the second loop. Unfortunately he was checking the control descriptions first and then he turned the map again. Therefore he ran again to the first control of the first loop. He found out just before the control and the race was lost for us by then. He managed to get back to the race after a 5min mistake quite well and after a good run by Vojta Kral we repeated the 11th place from last year. Of course we were disappointed, the race started very well for us - many strong teams losing a lot after the first leg. Unfortunately this kind of inattentive mistake happens once a time to everyone (even to the king Thierry) and unfortunately it had quite cruel consequences this time.


One last biting comment: It was a real brain teaser to set some relay courses before the race after the middle course setter used most of the area around the arena. We simply didn't believe they can use the same area again for the relay courses. It was quite surprising when I took the map and found out that more than half of the race is in the area I visited the day before during middle distance. Is it a problem? Yes, it is. Not only it is unfair for the teams who picked different runners for the relay and for the middle distance. With the current "league system" some teams didn't even have a chance to send the runners to the forest before the relay. Especially in this kind of very difficult terrain the advantage was a big one. Just when I compare the first part of my middle distance and the relay performance..


World Games coming soon..

The international season is not yet over. In 7 days we are leaving for World Games in Poland. Looking forward to being part of the big sport festival!


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