4th at European Champs Middle!!!

I can hardly believe it myself! And to think that last Friday I was sprawled on the floor in Stockholm airport for the second day in a row seriously considering giving up and trying to get a flight back to Turku. Arlanda airport turned into complete chaos when the air traffic control system broke down and flights got cancelled left, right and center. Part of the British, Hungarian team and I found ourselves at the mercy of Scandinavian Airlines waiting for hours to be rebooked just to have our flight cancelled again. It certainly felt like I was never going to make it to Jesenik but a ginormous thanks to the British Team who delivered me sane and in one piece right to my accommodation at 3:00am… 44 hours after leaving my home in Turku.

Beautiful terrain waiting for us in the Middle Qualifier. Photo: Will Critchley

A week later I’m standing at the start line of the middle final and incredibly happy just to be there! We were expecting a tough race technically as well as physically and we definitely weren’t disappointed. We were thrown directly into a steep, rocky hillside with vague vegetation to try and survive the first few controls with minimal time loss. If you’ve seen the photo on the Orienteering Canada Facebook page you might be wondering why it looks like I took a bath in a mud pit. The start triangle was in a marsh and as I was running through I tripped on a stone and sent a wave of muddy swamp water up into my face. Cue frantically trying to wipe it out of my eyes in order to read the map!

Up to the 6^th control I had quite a few hesitations in the circle when I didn’t have concrete attack points and was therefore playing my luck to recognize the features in the circle and see the flag. It wasn’t the technique that I was going for but at least I was able to stop in the circle, fit the map to the terrain and find the control from there.

Photo: Iveta Malá

Tove Alexandersson was starting 2 minutes behind me and I heard the first crackle of branches at the 6^th control but resolved to keep my focus ahead no matter what. She came roaring through at the 10^th control and there was no keeping up with that train! Physically I was not feeling at the top of my game and it was everything that I could do to keep pushing despite the burning in my legs and my lungs. It really felt like I was at the limit of what I could do physically while still keeping my navigation together. I was walking that fine line between running an aggressive race and running into oblivion. Which is why I nearly got lost going to the go-control (Will agrees that it was surprisingly difficult).

Photo: Iveta Malá

My objectives for running these European Champs were to get a feel for delivering good races under high pressure and to see how I compared to the best in the world. This result is super positive feedback and I can keep training with confidence knowing that I’ve been doing something right this year so far. I even got the interesting but exciting experience of having my very own awards ceremony after the EOC podiums. When you find yourself alone beside the podium just smile and wave!

We wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of the EOC organizers who worked so hard to put together such a great week of racing. Challenging races, beautiful terrain, team leader meetings with no funny business, rides from the arena back to the quarantine to pick up our car, unlimited water for when I had to go through doping control… we’ll certainly keep many fond memories from our time in Jesenik, Czech Republic.

Photo: Léa Vercellotti