Gueorgiou beats Gonon: Orient-show Maps and Results

This weekend (24-25/11) a second edition of Orient show in Villeneuve d'asc kicked off. Once again a well organised and challenging event in the North of France with good weather and a lot of elite runners from about 5 different countries took place. And of course our team of SLOK (Student Leuven Orienteering Kings) was present..

Gueorgiou dominates qualficiation-heats:
On saturday it was qualification-time, 73 men and 26 women were present. This 'last training' was helpfull to get familiar with the detailled terrain, more than 100 controls were set spread over the area. The 64 best men and women of the 4 different courses of +- 800m qualified themselves.
Mens class was dominated by a certain guy from the south of France called Thierry Gueorgiou. He won every single race, so he was sure about the first place in the overall-results.
SLok's qualification results were promising for the 1/4-finals on sunday: Hoekx Jeroen(10th), van der Kleij Thomas(16th), Franssen Desmond(17), De Lat Bruno(19).
In the women's class, there were 3 different winners: Michaela Kotecka, Pippa Whitehouse and Charlotte Bouchet.

Qualfication Results
Qualficiation Overall-ranking Men
Qualfication Overall-ranking Men (second part)
Qualification Overall-ranking Women
Map Qualificiation

Lucky Latty
In those 1/4-finals the runners were divided in 4 groups from which the top-4 could move on the de 1/2-finals to stay with the last 16 of the event. There was a remarkable time difference between the 4 poules (weak versus strong) which resulted for instance that Smola was knocked out of the race and that Bruno De Lat (Latty) gathered a lucky qualification. Also six other belgian runners achieved their ticket: Goubau Johan won his group. Hoekx, Franssen D., van der Kleij T. and Van Gasse L. took the 3rd and De Neyer Q. the 4th spot in their groups.
In the women's competition all famous runners were qualified without any problems.

Results 1/4-finals

Hoekie and Charlotte unlucky
In the 1/2-finals, two new groups of 8 runners compeeted for 2 final tickets. The running speed increased significantly and 4 French internationals (Thierry Gueorgiou, François Gonon, Thibaut Magne, and Charley Boichut) were stronger than the other competitors. Unfortunately, no SLOK-runners were fast enough to qualify. The man in hyper-shape, Jeroen Hoekx was only 2 seconds too slow to reach the final.
In the other class, the French (national team) girls Capucine Vercelotti and Anais Goffre reached the final. The 3th famous girl (Charlotte Bouchet) was 4 seconds too slow and knocked out. The other heat was won by Pippa Whitehouse (GBR) followed by Michaele Kotecka (CZE).

Results 1/2-finals

Close fights
For the final, the spectators got the competition map and could nicely observe the final battles. First, Capucine Vercelotti took the victory in the women's class. She started very strong, closely followed by Anais Goffre. But at the end it was Pippa Whitehouse who finnished very strong and made it a close fight. Pippa became 2nd, 4 seconds slower than Smola's girlfriend (Capucine).
In the men's competition, Thierry Gueorgiou took the best start. But after the separated (gaffling) part, a very fast François Gonon punched together with the World champion. He was breezing in the back of Thierry until last control, sensational till the end. But he couldn't pass Thierry anymore. Thibaut Magne ended 3rd and Charly Boichut took the 4th place.

Map Final
Results Final

Relay: Slok wins!
The final part of Orient-show 2007 was a relay-competition. Every team consisted of 3 runners and every runner had to run +-600m. 30 teams were present at the start during this mini-relay.
Bruno De Lat (Slok2) started very fast and was the leader from the start untill the finish during the first leg. Thomas van der Kleij (Slok3) tried to follow him and finished a few seconds later in 4th position. During the 2nd leg Desmond Franssen (named Tadese during this event, like the world champion cross country) took the lead. Yves Briers (Slok2) followed closely up to the moment when he came into the labyrinth. Here he lost some important time and mispunched 2 controls (in total 1minute sentence). And Desmond nearly made an analogue mistake. He passed the last control without punching it. Luckily, Simon Leroy had seen this and told this information to his French friend. Jeroen Hoekx heard the rumour and yelled his teammate to return and actually punch the last control. Finally Slok3 still changed over in first position but the contestants followed closely.
But Hoekie proved once again his great shape with a perfect run. He crossed the finish in first position, 7 seconds faster than an other Belgian team Pegase1 (Sillien Vincent, Goubeau Julien and Goubeau Johan) and 10 seconds faster than Breizh-team (Lesaffre and his friends).

Results SLOK:
1. SLOK3 (Thomas van der Kleij, Desmond Franssen, Jeroen Hoekx)
12. SLOK2 (Bruno DeLat, Yves Briers, Winston Franssen)
18. SLOK1 (Jeroen van der Kleij, Jef Boeckx, Sofie Defour)

Map Relay
Results Relay


Event website
An other article (O'zone)
All Slok-pictures
Orient-show Maps

Orient'Show Preview

Last year's Orient'Show in Villeneuve d'Ascq was well enjoyed by top runners like Thierry Gueorgiou (Thierry should probably close his comments after some time though). We also wrote about our experiences there. There were not that many participants back then. A second Orient'Show in Saint Genest Malifaux, also in France, went by largely unnoticed and also suffered from a lack of participants. This year's edition will be different. There are already 117 entries. Among them a lot of good runners who will make it hard for everyone to make it to the final rounds.

Pasquasy and Gueorgiou seconds before the start.

There's a pretty good explanation of how the event is organized available, but we'll give a short overview: on saturday, there are four qualification races, without starting times. One of them has 40 controls on 800m. Our calculator says that this equals one control every 20m! The best 16 runners of each series pass through to the 1/4 finals on sunday. The others are into the B-series. The top three of each 1/4 final are allowed in the semifinal, along with the winners of the B-quarterfinal. This is to account for runners that only participate on sunday, but it might be worth a guess to let yourself end up in the B-series and take that way into the 1/2 finals, since the competitions in the A-series will be though. The best two runners of each semifinal are quailified for the final. There are prizes for the first four runners: 1: €80, 2: €60, 3: €40, 4: €20. Orient'Show will be ended with a relay event. We are looking forward to see what that will bring us.

Thierry Gueorgiou wins everything, so it's no surprise that he won the two previous editions. This time, things are different however: newcomers Jonn-Are Myhren, Duncan Archer and Michal Smola will try to show what they're worth. Maybe Damien Renard is out for revenge? Or is François Gonon better than his teammate? Also don't forget Eritrean Tadese Franssen, who showed great shape the previous races and trainings. His only focus the last few months was Orient'Show...

Tadese Franssen ready for a race at Orient'Show last year

And what about the Belgians? Although Fabien Pasquasy is injured, he's still on the startlist. Maybe he's able to run fast enough already. The Goubau, De Neyer and Sillien brothers are also fast. (We previously said that Nicolas Sillien was known for his big mistakes , well, our opinion has changed since then! He was unbeatable the last part of the season.) On the Flemish side, we are of course looking forward to know how Paul Bolsens is going to run, but let's not forget the Slok runners, who did a special mini-Orient'Show for training a few weeks ago. The results got lost in the aftermath of the Jenever relay, but what still stands is that Bruno De Lat won all three races back then. We tried to lose/dump him in the forest on a long distance training last week, but our efforts failed, so he might be a serious contestant. Also Thomas van der Kleij only missed the finals last year because his SI was too slow (this is no excuse this year as fast SI-chips will be provided by the organizers) and yours truly ended up in 5th position. The places in the Slok relay teams are not yet decided, as other former junior stars with names like Briers, Boeckx, Tadese's brother Winston and last but not least Jeroen van der Kleij are also participating

In the womens category we will see a change. Last year's winner Amélie Chataing is not going to participate, but she's replaced by three other member-of-the-national-team-French girls, which is not too bad either. (The French have a holy adoration for members of the national team in all possible sports, in Belgium, especially the football team gets a different treatment, not without reason of course) Among them the winner of the second Orient'Show, Anaïs Goffre, but she'll have to face Tiomila winner Capucine Vercellotti and Orient'Show newcomer Charlotte Bouchet on her way through the races. Fast foreigners are Pippa Whitehouse (GBR) and Aline Mazy-Hermans (BEL). Our very own and very talented Elien Melis and Miek Fabré both had weak excuses, ranging from (in no particular order) too much work for school, too expensive, club training camps, win the hamok-cup for Omega, orienteering instructor exams over "too lazy" to "I thought you left on friday".

De Laatste Post will try to keep you updated on saturday if there's free Wifi to be found in the area. Otherwise, complete reports will follow later on.

World Cup 2008

3 more races, At least 6 runners from every nation, Chase start in Norway.
At its recent meeting in Helsinki, the IOF Council decided to implement a number of adjustments to the foot orienteering World Cup 2008. The decision was made on proposal by a Project Group set down to evaluate the 2007 World Cup, with participants from the IOF Council, the Foot Orienteering Commission and the newly formed Athletes’ Commission. The project group made its recommendations after extensive consultation, where national federations, team coaches and athletes were invited to provide input and ideas.

World Cup 2008 Programm

1. 26 May, Sprint distance, EOC, Latvia
2. 28 May, Long distance, EOC, Latvia
3. 31 May, Middle distance, EOC, Latvia
4. 20 Jun, Middle Distance, O-Festival, Norway
5. 21 Jun, Long Distance, Chase start, O-Festival, Norway
6. 13 Jul, Sprint Distance, WOC, Czech Republic
7. 17 Jul, Middle Distance, WOC, Czech Republic
8. 19 Jul, Long Distance, WOC, Czech Republic
9. 22 Jul, Sprint Distance, O-Ringen, Sweden
10. 23 Jul, Middle Distance, O-Ringen, Sweden
11. 24 Jul, Long Distance, Mass Start, O-Ringen, Sweden
12. 4 Oct, Middle Distance, Post Finance Sprint, Switzerland
13. 5 Oct, Sprint Distance , Post Finance Sprint, Switzerland

More races in the programme
The programme will consist of 13 races. News is that all three individual finals in the European Orienteering Championships in Ventspils, Latvia will be included in the World Cup.

Quotas for participation adjusted
The number of athletes that each nation can enter (with the exception of the European Championships and the World Championships) will, as before, be based on the World Ranking List Federation League table. News is that the six best nations (separately for men and women) may enter 8 athletes. All other nations may enter 6 athletes. The reigning World Champions of 2007 have personal free places provided they are selected by their federations. These free places are additional to the national quota. Finally, in World Cup events outside the EOC and WOC, the organising nation (“home nation”) will be given the right to enter an additional 4 athletes of each gender (4 men and 4 women).

Qualification is minimised
The complicated qualification model that was used 2007 has been revised. News is that, with the exception of the European Championships and the World Championships, there will be no separate qualification races. Each round “stands alone”, meaning that participation in finals at a certain round is based on achievement in the same round. In several cases, athletes are allowed direct entry to the finals.


At the European Champs Relay 2006 in Estonia, Thierry Gueorgiou lost in a sprint of David Andersson. In the World Cup final in the same year he tried to revench, but they both mispunched. In the next years world cup, we might see some more of these fights. - Picture: Ruff-o

New format, chase start
World Cup 5, long distance at O-festivalen in Oslo, will be run as a chase start based on the results of World Cup 4, middle distance. The overall programme now has a good balance between formats, with 4 long distance (2 individual, 1 mass start and 1 chase start), 5 middle distance and 4 sprint races.

New model for total scores
The scoring model is changed in comparison to 2007. News is that the final total score is made up of the best 8 scores from the first 11 events, and the two scores from the final round. This means that it will be possible to include scores from all races at the World Championships in the total.

http://www.orienteering.org/

Hamok outstanding - Hamok wint herfstwisselbeker

Last sunday (11/11) all flemish clubs participated in Koersel (the map Fonteintje) and competed to win the floating trophy (every team consisted of 5 runners). This oro-hydro race was a part of the Belranking-competition. Still 2 races to go and we will know which runners gained the best results this season. The last 2 races will take place during the sylvester 5-days at the end of december.

In Koersel the victory went to the club HAM OK. Actually OMEGA had the best results, but elite-runner Bart Delobel was disqualified by passing a control (only 3 meters away) without punching it. Remarkable; in Danmark (during the O-biathlon) he made exactly the same mistake. So he scored no points for his team, and they became 4th. TROL (victory from Frans Laenen) became 3th and KOL (victory from Denis Reynders) 2nd.
Congratulations to Jeroen Hoekx, Martin Beckers, Greet Oeyen, An Verberne and Tuur Cloostermans.

Team results
Individual runner results
Map part1
Map part2




Vorige zondag (11/11) werd in Koersel Fonteintje om de herfstwisselbeker gestreden. Deze wedstrijd op oro-hydro kaart was de derde laatste wedstrijd meetellend voor de Bel-ranking. Nu volgen er enkel nog 2 wedstrijden tijdens de sylvester om uit te maken wie de beste Belgische orienteurs van 2007 waren.
Om de herfstwisselbeker binnen te halen, moest elke ploeg uit 5 lo(o)p(st)ers bestaan, elk uitkomend in hun respectievelijke categorie. Het was geen verassing dat de eerste ploeg van Hamok een topploeg was. Jeroen Hoekx liep vorig weekend nog de pannen van het dak met een dubbele overwinning (Drunense Duinen en Schemmersberg). Hij is duidelijk klaar voor een nieuwe clash met Thiery Gueorgiou tijdens de volgende Orient-show binnen 2 weken. Ook kleppers als Martin Beckers, Greet Oeyen, An Verberne en Tuur Cloostermans zijn nooit weg te denken uit de top van het klassement.

Maar er waren kapers op de kust. Omega 1 bijvoorbeeld, op papier zelfs nog sterker. Deze ploeg deed het dan ook uitstekend, buiten Bart Delobel gerekend. Bart liep op 3 meter van zijn post zonder hem te knippen. Zelfs met zijn declassering (en bijgevolg 0 punten) haalden ze nog bijna het podium. Het waren Trol, onder leiding van ouwe getrouwe Frans Laenen en Kol, waar een andere veteraan (Denis Reynders) voor een overwinning zorgde, die met 3e en 2e plaats gingen lopen.

Ploegenklassement (berekend door Yves Briers)
foto: Militaire Ploeg

Original Mountain Marathon : Belgian top results

Recently the 40th original mountain marathon (OMM) took place in Lowther hills of Southern Scotland (http://www.theomm.com/). The OMM is amazing two day self-providing long orienteering run. In elite class 39 km and 2617 m of ascent during the first day and 33.2 km and 1810 m of ascent during the second day had to be beaten. Among the participants we see some belgian O-runners : Tom Mariën (Class A) and Jeremy Genar/Stefaan Thiels (Class C). They both managed a splendid result with Tom Mariën and his team member on a second spot, while Genar/Thiels finished in the 11th position. Probably junior Genar soon will publish his story at his blog. Here you can already read the story of Tom Mariën (only available in dutch):

Het was de eerste keer dat ik deze wedstrijd meedeed en bijna kon ik op het laatste moment niet meedoen daar mijn partner woensdag moest afhaken met een stressfractuur in zijn voet. In extremis kon ik via de website nog een nieuwe collega strikken.
Dan toch naar Schotland. Daar bleek mijn nieuwe partner al enige ervaring te hebben met de wedstrijd. Al een 7 deelnames met de laatste 2 deelnames in de elite reeks. Dit heeft zeker geholpen met het verloop van de wedstrijd. Zaterdag vertrokken met aangenaam weer om te lopen. Bewolkt maar geen regen en weinig wind. Tegen de middag is de wind, mist en regen komen opzetten met 's nachts een heuze storm met windstoten tot 100 mph. De eerste dag geïndigd op een 7de plaats met 16 min achter de eerste. Een mooi resultaat voor de 1 eerste keer. Hier was ik al blij mee. Zondag eerste start om 7 uur. Daar het jachtstart was mochten wij al starten om 7u16. Van het slechte weer van vorige nacht niets meer tezien. Open hemel en de zon die opkomt boven de bergen. Kon het nog mooier?? Gedurende wedstrijd genieten van prachtige vergezichten maar nergens andere ploegen te zien. Post 6 een bemande post: blijkt dat we plots op de 2de plaats lopen. Post 7: een ploeg achter ons. Halen ons iets voor post 8 in. Bleek de ploeg te zijn die op de eerste plaats liepen. Die hebben we moeten laten gaan daar ze te snel waren. Aangekomen bleken we 2de te zijn met 16 sec voor de 3 ploeg en een 6 a 7 min achter de eerste. En dit voor een wedstrijd van ong 12 uur over de 2 dagen. Het was een prachtige wedstrijd in prachtig gebied met een perfecte organisatie.

De Laatste Post wenst de belgische deelnemers nogmaals proficiat met hun prestatie en misschien vinden volgende editie nog meer belgen hun weg naar Schotland.

VVO-leden in Nationaal team 2008

Gisteren (5 november) heeft VVO zijn vertegenwoordigers voor de Belgische senior- en juniorploeg 2008 gepubliceerd.

Volgende atleten zullen in aanmerking komen om ons vaderland te vertegenwoordigen op de internationale evenementen:

Junioren:

Adriaan Pelckmans, Elien Melis, Elisabeth Henkes, Frederik Meynen, Gert Claes, Jeremy Genar, Jochen Verdeyen, Jonathan Bruffaerts, Miek Fabré, Nathalie Limborgs, Niel Deijgers, Sien Verdeyen, Wouter Foppen, Wouter Leeuws, Yannick Michiels en Yves Limborgs.

Senioren:

Bart Delobel, Dries Van der Kleij, Greet Oeyen, Jan Gilot, Jeroen Hoekx, Jeroen Van der Kleij, Joost Talloen, Kim Geypen, Kim Wallaert, Niels-Peter Foppen, Saartje Sallaerts, Thomas Van der Kleij, Veerle Tulleneers en Wannes Hendrickx.

Voorgaande bijlage toont aan dat globaal gezien Omega duidelijk de hofleverancier is. Bij de junioren is het overgrote deel (56%) aangesloten bij de club uit Diest. Bij de senioren moet Omega echter Hamok naast zich dulden (met beide 5 atleten).

Ook de 2 Nederlandse Foppen-broeders zullen het komende seizoen trachten internationale ervaringen op te doen onder begeleiding van het ABSO-BVOS-team.

Long-OL Drunense Duinen

Today, in de sand dunes of Drunen (NL), KOVZ organized its yearly long-ol. The map (below) was a 1984 IOF map, but since there was hardly anything else than contours and sand, it was still possible to use it. It was a bit rough sometimes, but nothing too badly wrong.

The view from the first control.

Results are available, as are the splittimes and we've got some photos and more importantly the map of the longest course (which was only 15km long).