World Orienteering Cup Final - Zurich, Switzerland

GG (Graham Gristwood) and I (Sarah Rollins!) both competed in the World O Cup Final in Zurich over the weekend of 26-27 Sept 2009.



We travelled out on Thursday 24 Sept so we could take in some 'model' terrain on the Friday prior to the races over the weekend. These races comprised a forest middle distance race, followed by the final race of the year - a sprint race in the old town of Zurich city centre. The Swiss are reknowned for putting on great races and they managed to do it again with a tough, fairly technical forest middle race followed by an amazing Sprint Final. The atmosphere in the Sprint Final along the finish funnel, next to the river was incredible with a massive, enthusiastic crowd and a great course dodging in and out of the old city streets.

In the middle race, GG managed a respectable 21st position, only 3mins 02 seconds behind the winner - a very close race. I had a steady run with no big mistakes but found the terrain hard, especially the steep downhills and I succumbed to a large Swiss field, finishing in 35th, over 7 mins down. Not my best result.

In the final race of the International Orienteering year, it was a different storythough. The women ran first and I had a run to be proud of. I finished in 11th spot, just 4 seconds off a top 10 and just over a minute down on the winer. GG piped me again with a fantastic 9th spot although looking through his race later he found a couple of routes that might have taken him onto the podium had he chosen them....but that's orienteering for you....

It was a brilliant weekend set in beautiful sunshine, in a beautiful city with great event sponsorship and set up. This was a race not to be missed!














Sarah Rollins and Graham Gristwood racing for GB in the World O Cup Final - Inov8's are attached at the other end!