Today’s Relay in the European Championship in Ski-orienteering went really well for the Norwegian first team. I did a good first leg, and changed over as 2nd runner, only a few seconds behind Sweden’s Peter Arnesson. Øyvind Watterdal followed up with an impressive second leg, and sent out Eivind Tonna together with Finland and only 30 seconds behind Sweden.

It was tight between the three teams in front the whole last leg and they changed of bee in the lead. At the end Sweden and Finland was to strong, but we got a great bronze-medal, after an almost perfect races by all on the team. Finland won the women’s class in front of Russia and Sweden. Results, maps and pictures from all events

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Today’s Middle distance in the European Championship in Ski-orienteering was a tricky race with a lot of narrow scooter tracks. Andrey Gruzdev won in front of Ondrej Vodrazka, who finally got a medal after several 4th places in previous races. Eivind Tonna did a great race and was 5th, only 6 second behind Erik Rost and Tomas Löfgren from Sweden who shared the bronze medal.

I lost around one minute in the beginning of my race, but from the 5th control it went OK, and I came 18th, almost 3 minutes behind Gruzdev. Tatiana Vlasova won her third gold medal for the week in the women’s class, while the Norwegian girls did not have a good day. Results

Today’s course was in the same area as the Middle distance from JWOC 2005, but with more tracks and controls. Tomorrow is the last event; the Relay. I am having the first leg on the Norwegian first team, with Øyvind Watterdal and Eivind Tonna on the two following legs.

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Today it has been rest-day in the European Championship in Ski-orienteering in Engadin, and the Norwegian boys has been in Livigno in Italy. The only road to Livigno in the winter is over a pass and through a tunnel from the Swiss side of the boarder. Livigno is therefore a tax-free city with a lot of hotels and tourist skiing in the nice mountains.

In Livigno we were shopping, eating pizza and doing some very easy classic skiing. I was really tired after yesterday’s long distance, but it was nice to be out in the sun a use the body a little bit. After the long distance I climbed to the 15th position in the overall World Cup, and are therefore among the last starters in the Red group tomorrow.

Read more about the Norwegian Team on the new ski-o.com or look at my pictures.

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Today the Long distance with mass-start was held in the European Championship in Ski-orienteering. I did a good race, and thought I was among the first runners the whole course. But it was not so easy to know where you was in the field because of the forking, and a group of a few runners had managed to beak away already after the first butterfly-loop. I saw six runners around one minute in front of me on the open areas at the end of the course. To the last control I managed to pass Gruzdev, and finished as 6th runner, one minute behind Erik Rost from Sweden.

Eivind Tonna was 10th and Øyvind Lund on a great 12th place. Tatiana Vlasova won again the women’s class, and Marte Reenaas got a strong 5th place. It was a good day for the Norwegian Team, and I am really satisfied with my performance, even it was short up to a medal.
Results

Today’s course was in parts of the same area as the Long distance from JWOC 2005, but with the first and last loop on the east side of the river. Tomorrow it will be a rest day, before the Middle distance on Friday and Relay on Saturday.

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Today the European Championship in Ski-orienteering in Engadin in Switzerland started with the Sprint. Tomas Löfgren and Tatiana Vlasova were today’s winners, and Marte Reenaas and Eivind Tonna were best of the Norwegians on 7th and 8th place. I lost some time to the first control, but did after that an OK race, and came at 21st place, 1.35 behind Tomas. Results

We will not get the competition-maps before after the Relay on Sunday, but today’s course was quite similar to the Sprint from JWOC 2005 which was held in the same area. Tomorrow is the long distance with mass-start. Mass-start is my favorite of the individual distances, and I am really looking forward to it.

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Today we should have taken part in the Swiss Championship in Short distance in Realp, just a few kilometers from where we live in Andermatt. But because of a lot of new snow the race was cancelled. It has been snowing at least 50 cm the last day, and the road to Reap was closed. I have not been skiing today, but have been running in the streets in Andermatt.

Now it has stopped snowing, and tomorrow it is expected nice weather, so we will hopefully get a good ski-session in Andermatt before we drive to S-chanf, where the European Championship in ski-orienteering will be held next week.

Yesterday we took a car-train through a tunnel to the other side of a mountain, and had hoped to do the course from the Swiss selection-race in sprint to EOC, which was held in Müster two weeks ago. But because it had snowed too much since the race it was almost impossible to go in the scooter-tracks. But the skating-tracks were great, and we got a nice training anyway. After lunch we were sledging. Some of the Norwegian runners have had troubles with their stomachs the last day, but they are feeling better now, and will hopefully be well again to the EOC starts with sprint on Tuesday.

Pictures from Andermatt

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Since Monday I have been in Andermatt in Switzerland, where the Noregian Team are on a pre-camp before the European Championship in ski-orienteering which will be held in S-chanf in Engadin next week.

The first days we just trained easy, but today we had an easy interval-session. Tomorrow we are going to take the train through a tunnel to the other side of a mountain, and do the course from the Swiss selection-race in sprint to EOC which was held two weeks ago. Saturday we are going to take part in the Swiss Championship in Short distance in Realp, just a few kilometers from where we live in Andermatt.

Øyvind Lund has written a report from our stay in Andermatt so far for the new ski-o.com, where you in the future will find news and information about Norwegian ski-orienteering. The site has not been released yet, but will soon replace the old ski-o.com.

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The last week I have been in Östersund and competed in SM Mass-start and the Swedish Ski-o-cup as a part of my preparation for the coming European Championship in ski-orienteering in Switzerland.

Thursday morning the Swedish Championship in Mass-start was arranged. Since I am not Swedish or live in Sweden I was not allowed to start in the mass-start, but had the same course in the public-event straight after the mass-start. At the results it looks like I was a few seconds faster than the winner in SM Peter Arnesson, but in the public-event the time to the first control is missing and my total time was therefore two minutes slower than Peters. But still a quite good race and I won the public-event 22 seconds in front of my team-mate Lars Moholdt.

It was a tough program and already the same night there were arranged a sprint-relay with 4 legs and 2 runners on each team. I had the 1st and 3rd leg for Wing, while Lars Moholdt had the 2nd and 4th leg. The first two legs went well and we were close to the lead. But at the last two legs both I and Lars did some small mistakes and we finished as 4th team, 53 seconds behind the winner Alfta-ÖSA

Friday the last race was arranged, with a quite long Middle-distance. My race was OK, and I finished at 8th place, 3 minutes behind Erik Rost. The race was also a World Ranking Event, and I have now climbed to a 20th place at the World Ranking.

Results and splits from all races in Östersund.

Monday most of the Norwegian runners are traveling to Switzerland for the European Championship in ski-orienteering. Because the competitions are on high attitude we are going to stay in Andermatt on a training-camp the first week to be acclimated to the height. Saturday we are going to take part in a local ski-o-event, and Sunday we are traveling to S-chanf where the competitions will start Tuesday 15th January. If I get access to internet I will present pictures and maps from Switzerland.

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The first weekend in November the Norwegian National Team in Orienteering had a Kick Off for next season for the best seniors and juniors. We had expected a normal training-camp, but were sent out in the forest near Rena and Elverum with the Army.

We got full military equipment, and were separated into three teams of 8 people in each. We had to stay out for two days and night, and got very little food and sleep. We got a lot of different challenges, and all team-members had to cooperate well to get a good result for the team.

It was a tough weekend, but also a great experience and a memory for life, which hopefully also will make me a better orienteer.

Here you can find 252 pictures from the Kick Off, most of them taken by Claes Tommy Herland, but also some taken by me when my team was alone in the forest.

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This weekend the second and third race in the Norwegian Milslukern Cup in ski-orienteering was held at Venabu. The races were also the last selection races for the European Championship which will be held in Switzerland in the middle of January.

Yesterday it was Middle distance. I did a quite good race, but to the 15th control I lost as much as 30 - 40 second on my route choice around to the right compared to the left. Lars Moholdt won after a really good race, and I came on 4th place, almost 2 min behind. Results and splits

Today’s Long distance started well for me, and I was in the lead at the 5th control. I did again a quite good race, but lost time on some route choices. It is difficult to always choose the best, and you have to accept to lose 10 - 15 seconds a few places during a race. To the 10th control Lars Moholdt was 30 seconds faster with a route choice to the right. To the 15 control I took wrong track in a cross, had to turn back, and lost 40 seconds. Øyvind Watterdal had a really strong finish, and was winning with 27 seconds down to Lars. Eirik Watterdal, I and Øyvind Lund was 2 minutes behind, and it was only 9 second between us. Results and splits

The conditions at Venabu were really great, and it was two challenging competitions with good courses. It was a hard fight in the top of the men’s class every day. After the races the Team to the European Championship was selected. Marte Reenaas and Eivind Tonna were not competing this weekend.

The Norwegian Team to the European Championship

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