NM Sprint Final (24/05/2014)

A mainly good race, that was destroyed by two big mistakes.

In the beginning of the course I tried to get an overview and decide as many routes as possible. I was maybe too focused on the coming legs, because after the 2nd control I started to read the map on the leg to the 4th control, and didn't understand a thing when it was no opening in the house I wanted to pass through. I got confused when I stopped and looked around, and I also thought I had punched the wrong 3rd control, since mine should have been on a wall, and not a flowerbed. I was running back to the previous control, and than I understood that it was my 2nd control, and I had to continue to the 3rd control. This mistake cost me 20 sec.

It felt like I had lost 20 - 30 sec, and I hoped it was still possible to win the race, or at least get a good position, if I was running fast and error free the rest of the course. After the mistake I was running quite aggressive, and had a good flow from the 3rd to the 11th control.

The other mistake was to the 12th control, where I didn't see the wall closing the opening between the buildings. When I was not able to enter through the building I ran left, and lost 10 sec compared to the right route.

The rest of the race was OK. I took the best routes, but was quite tired after running fast in the middle part of the course, and lost a few seconds to the fastest runners.

My result is a shared 6th place, 16 seconds behind the winner Nicholas Oskarsson. It's good to see that it's severals Norwegian who is running well in sprint, and that I can't do big mistakes like today if I want to get a top position.