Preview Flemish district champ long distance

A busy o-week in Flanders (north part of Belgium); 4 competitions in 5 days. Yesterday a night orienteeringcompetition was organised on the challenging map 'Sahara'. Nearly the whole race took place in the technical part, visible on this mapextract.
In the mens class the victory went to Jochen Verdeyen closely followed by Wim Vervoort. They managed to run without making big mistakes, like Joost Talloen (5th) did. Also Thomas Henriksson (3th), Wannes Hendrickx (4th) and Frans Laenen (6th) didn't reach the finnish without mistakes.
In the womens competition the victory went to Greet Oeyen, the only participator in the A-class. She started very strong and secure with a 2nd best time (first leg) in the mens class. At the end she lost some time compared with the men. In the B-class the victory went to youngster Sien Verdeyen.
Tommorow (on friday) a military event will take place on the map Helchterenbos(1), once again a qualitymap(2). One day later Trol will organise a regional event in 'Het Leen'. And finally on sunday, the climax of the weekend.

The Flemish disctrict championship long distance organised by Omega on the map 'Weyervlakte'. Last year the national championship relay took place in the same area. In the H21E class some good runners will be present. We can expect a close fight between Bart Delobel, Geert Simkens, Joost Talloen and maybe Thomas Hendrickx or other outsiders. You also can find Thomas van der Kleij on the startlist, but he's still injured.
Last year Pieter Hendrickx took the victory, but it's still a big question or he will participate in many competitions this year. The second place went to Jan Gilot, who will become father in a very close future (Congratulations in advance). So the only participator of last years podium will be Bart Delobel (who became 3th in 2007). He told us that the 3 runners performed at high level during the championship in 2007. If we take a look at the min/km-times we understand why. This year his first goal is the first national event (Dilsenerbos) closely followed by the match (in the end of february and the beginning of march). But the race on sunday will be a good opportunity to test his current form.

In the D21E class we can expect a fight between Veerle Tulleneers (winner in 2007), Greet Oeyen and Kim Geypen. Saartje Sallaerts will make (officially) her first appereance in the +21class and maybe she will be able to surprise us. Miek Fabre is still too busy with her exams, so she will be absent.

The important races are comming closer, so we'll have a chance to observe which runners trained hard this winter during this busy o-week. I mentionned 4 nice competitions during this 5 days, but it was even possible to participate in a 5th competition. Yesterday a school-O-event was organised and some youngsters got introduced with this very nice sport. And if you're still not satisfied, you can go and take a look to the physical testrun of the national juniorteam, also on saturday, in Lummen.

Startlist Flemish Championship
Results Night-O (23/01)
Results School-competition (23/01)
Results Military event (25/01)
Split-times Military event (25/01)
Results regional event (26/01)
Results Kol-clubchampionship (26/01)
Results Flemish Championship (27/01)