Ohlsson and Nykodým the best ones in tough middle
Karolin Ohlsson from Sweden and Miloš Nykodým from the Czech Republic dominated in today’s Middle distance near Valdštejn castle.
The courses by Jindřich Kořínek were set in a beautiful and tricky terrain full of huge sandstones with a lot of climbing. As many runners said, the race was physically demanding and without a good physical strength together with fully concentrated mind you were not able to succeed. No or only little experience with this type of terrain made it extremely difficult to perform without mistakes.
Both Karolin and Miloš showed us impressive performances without bigger mistakes and enjoyed a comfortable victory of 70, resp. 51 seconds. Second in the women’s class was Julia Jakob from Switzerland and only one second behind Lina Strand from Sweden. Both women did also a very good race and were able to navigate without bigger problems.
What feeling it is to win a medal at a homeground could experience also Czech Pavel Kubát, but a small direction mistake on the crossroad made him to lose the bronz and he finished on the fourth position, 9 seconds behind Gernot Ymsen Kerschbaumer from Austria. The silver medal goes to Andreas Kyburz from Switzerland.
Andreas Kyburz
Congratulations to the second place! How did you like the race?
I liked it very much. It was really cool to run here. Especially, controls 14, 15 and 16 in the high rock pillows, it was just amazing! And go through these rocks... perfect!
Was the map easy for you?
At least I tried to. I had to stop quite often to see the easiest routes. Sometimes it was needed to run around to have a clear point, and it was important to know on which side the control is going to be and so on. That really helped me.
Was there something surprising for you today?
We had the old map, so we knew a little bit what to expect, but when I was running to the first control, I had no clue where to go, I was just following the direction where I saw some people and I hoped, that it's a place where the control could be. I was looking down all the time, it had to seem really funny.
Did you concentrate the whole race?
Yes, I caught up many people in the end and I told myself to stay active. Maybe some small mistakes, but it was for the first time I was racing in this kind of terrain, so I'm satisfied and happy.
Olav Lundanes
How did it go today?
Really bad, I missed the first control.
And where was the problem?
I just can't orientate there. Although I'm not used to these terrains, there were many chances to do it better...
Sara Hagstrom
What was the terrain like today?
It was cool, really demanding.
Are you used to these terrains or it was all new for you?
This is all new. I've been training a bit, but maybe not enough. I tried to prepare as much as I could but I should more, I guess. I have to run more in this area to get used to it.
Are you satisfied with your performance?
No, it was difficult to read the map for me because everything looks so similar. But I think it's good, you have to have clear plan exactly when you're leaving the control, you can't just run in the direction and hope it'll be fine. So I think it's a good technique of the training. But I'm so unsatisfied, it was terrible for me. However, it was fun! It would be perfect to succeed in this terain, I hope I can do it in the future.