Finland, Orienteering World Cup

Nordic 'O' Tour 2010

The Nordic Orienteering Tour started yesterday (17th June) in a small town called Tuusula, near Helsinki, Finland. GG and Sarah Rollins of Team Inov8 were running amongst others, for GB.

The race was special in that it started on a middle distance 1:10,000 type map and then after 30ish minutes there was a map exchange and we moved onto a 1:5000 map, sprint map. The event was televised live on the internet with a shortened programme for Finnish and Norwegian TV.

It was a great event and the racing was fast in both sections. Sarah made a mistake coming out of the 1st control unfortunately that cost her a minute but she then went on to have a very good run and in the end she finished in 17th spot. GG had irritatingly ;-) decided to copy her again (we both came 10th at the Europeans Sprint race last month) and came 17th too. He had a good clean run but the men's race was very tight. After nearly 40 mins running, the time to 17th was only just over 1 min down... for orienteering that is seriously close!

We have the Jukola relay tomorrow in a nearby forest where we will run for our clubs - GG for a swedish club and Sarah for a Norwegian one. Then we move on to Stockholm for the next part of the Nordic O Tour which will feature a very exciting set of sprint races, with 3 qualifying rounds before a final with only 6 runners.....fingers crossed!

Sorry no photos yet, but if I find a good one, I'll post it!