Interland 2009: Gristwood and England victorious

The interland is an international orienteering match between England, two Belgian teams (Flemish and French speaking), the Dutch and the Nordrhein-Westfalische (NW Germany) team. Each nation hosts the event in turn since 1995. The competition is truly a team effort spanning age groups from W and M14 to W and M60+: 42 team members in all. Courses are of National Event standard technical difficulty. England has managed to win each year but the margins recently have been close.

Results:
Today the competition took place in London (Burnham Beeches) without the German runners. They were absent because of financial reasons. In H21E Graham Gristwood took the victory (1h13'53). He was 1 minute faster than Fabien Pasquasy (trainingslog) and a couple more minutes in front of Matthew Crane (trainingslog) and Nick Barrable.

Results H21 elite (15km and 225m climbing):
1. Graham Gristwood 01:13:53
2. Fabien Pasquasy 01:15:12
3. Matthew Crane 01:17:44

Results D21 elite
1. Sarah Rollins 01:02:24
2. Pippa Whitehouse 01:03:11
3. Kim Geypen 01:08:39
Helen Bridle ran 01:03:04 (2nd) but she wasn't a member of the England team.

In the overall ranking England won again. Traditionally Flanders (VVO) became 2nd, Walloon (FRSO) 3rd and the Netherlands (NOLB) 4th.

ENG: 168 points
VVO: 111 points
FRSO: 92 points
NOLB: 36 points

Comments:
Graham Gristwood wrote on his trainingslog: 'Beautiful beech forest, nice fast running, interesting course with consistent technical challenge and some route choices (including some butterflies). I lost less than a minute and I was happy with my performance. Legs were a little tired from yesterday, especially for the last 15 minutes, but otherwise felt strong and in control.' Yesterday Gristwood was present at the English national cross country champs and he became 48th.
Fabien Pasquasy, who became 2nd despite his injury, wrote his comments about the race on his website.

2010:
In 2010 the competition will take place in Flanders (Leopoldsburg). Normally, the German (Wetsfalen) team will be present again. Also a French team (Calais) will take part next year!

Results and splits Interland 2009
Map Interland 2009 (H21E - Fabien Pasquasy)
Map Interland 2009 (H20E - Yannick Michiels)
Photos Interland 2009 (source: ultimate-orienteering.com)
Historic results