Team Melis/Talloen wins Jenever Relay

Yesterday evening, in an exciting race in the Arenbergpark (Leuven), Joost Talloen and Elien Melis proved once again that they mastered the skills required to call themselves student and orienteer at the same time.

Melis and Talloen, winners of the Memorial Sofie Herremans

On paper, it was clear that their team was the fastest, but since there was forking in the relay, Elien Melis had a handicap to the other runners, since she was given a longer course.

Each runner had to run three loops and before each loop, they had to drink one glass of Jenever, except for the last tour, where two glasses had to be consumed. It was also allowed and even encouraged to drink during the waiting periods of course.

Since teams consisted of one experienced runner and one/two coming talents, lots of good runners started in the mass start. The fastest runner of the first leg was Jeroen van der Kleij. He started off slowly, making sure others found controls in front of him, but used his superior knowledgde of the terrain to pass the other competitors on the way to the last control. His teammates Jolien and Annelies were the first to start, followed by the teammates of other runners like (in no particular order) Joost Talloen, Peter Krampiltz, Desmond Franssen, Winston Franssen, Bruno De Lat and Bart Mellebeek. Jos Thijs and especially Jef Boeckx lost some time for their follow-up runners.

The exchange zone.

On the first leg of the second runners, we saw that Elien Melis ran really fast, arriving right in front of the pack.

The second leg was deciding: Joost Talloen managed to get away from the others and had a two-minute lead to them. Melis and Talloen were able to secure that lead for the rest of the race. The battle for second place was harder, but finally won by Jeroen van der Kleij, together with Jolien Hoekx and Annelies ? . On third place, we see Bart Mellebeek, with his teammates Hans De Clercq and Sam Kayaert. The last four second runners had never run an o-race before, yet they still managed good times at night in the forest, holding off more experienced runners.

Afterwards...

Full results are available, as are more photos from the event.