For an Orienteering geek, studying in Finland might sometimes mean not being in Finland for more than 2 weeks. It started quite innocently when my Czech club OK99 asked me to come back to the Czech republic for one weekend to take part in Czech relay and club champs. Of course I agreed, it was high time to enjoy some good beer after almost 2 months in Finland and I also wanted to get some relay medals with OK99 finally. Then I found out that Czech team is going to have a training camp in my beloved Scotland just after the Czech champs so I decided to extend my travelling around Europe to one week. Unfortunately one-way ticket from Scotland back to Finland on Sunday was extremely expensive so it was better to get back to Czech republic and I had planned to travel back to Finland on the next day after coming from Scotland. Then my new Scandinavian club Kalevan Rasti let me know that there was a training camp in Sweden starting on Wednesday. I really wanted to meet guys from Kalevan so I decided to go there as well. And because it was quite useless to go to Finland just for 2 days between the training camps I chose to stay 2 days in Czech republic, then to fly directly to Sweden and then finally to get back to Helsinki by boat on Sunday after Smålandskavlen.
on the road in Scotland by Milos Nykodym
Czech relay and club champs
In last 3 years I was lucky enough to be ill, injured and once, when I was able to run the most important races of Czech club season, the relay was cancelled because of wrongly set control and we screwed the club champs. Therefore I was really motivated to finally make a race well enough to take a medal. The first chance was on Saturday in relay. We had again a very strong relay, unfortunatelly Kamenda made some mistakes on the first leg so the race didn't start as we planned. Pavel Kubat made a great race on the second leg and he sent me out on 8th position only 2 minutes behind the medals. I felt great physically, probably too great and I focused too much on pushing hard. Quite soon I was third but unfortunatelly I didn't know it so I went on in mad pace. I started doing mistakes and I allowed Marek Schuster and Kody to see me in front of them and after my next mistake to catch me just before the spectator control. In the end I managed to get back to the fight for bronz medal but after bad routechoice to the last control I lost the tight fight with Marek Schuster. Dissapointed like hell.
Czech TV coverage: they probably wanted to make the fight for bronz medal a bit simplier than it was so they just cut us out :D
Full results (ctrl+f H21 to find Men class)
On Sunday there was a second chance - club champs. 7 legs: 4 boys + 3 girls. All our runners on first 4 legs made good races but we were still a bit behind the best teams. I managed to make one of the perfect races on 5th leg and I was so happy to get us back to fight for medals. Pavel Kubat made another perfect race on the last leg and we finished 2nd after all. Silver medal, great feeling and a bit of wild celebration.
Full results (ctrl+f DOSPĚLÍ to find it)
Training camp in Scotland
Unfortunatelly I missed the famous bus-celebration on the way back to Hradec Kralove because just after the ceremony I joined the Czech team and left for Aviemore, Scotland. Extremely tough trainings, high heather and marshes everywhere, awesome nature, destillery in every single village. A bit stressed because of some school deadlines but pretty satisfied with the training camp after all. World champs in Scotland next year will be challenging. Glen Affric will require lot of tough trainings anyway.
Maps and summary of trainings on the Czech team web here.
Smålandskvalen with Kalevan Rasti
After 2 wonderful days in Brno I had to leave this town again and headed up north to join Kalevan in Uppsala. 5 trainings in legendary areas around Uppsala and then travelling a bit south to Småland to take part in "used to be one of the famous relays in Scandinavia". Terrain was not so challenging but my night leg stressed me a bit anyway. I made one stupid 2min mistake but I was quite happy not to screw my first race for Kalevan completely. Guys on the other legs made a good race and Jere was in the end fighting in a big group of 6 runners for the second place. A bit bad routechoice in the end decided that we finally ended up 5th. Nice team-building travel by boat back to Finland ended my travelling around Europe. The season is finally over. 2 calmer months in Helsinki has just started.
Pictures by Milos Nykodym and Kade