Pasquasy and Geypen win Belgian champs long distance

Today the Belgian national champs long distance took place in Tessenderlo. The forest was rather typical for Flanders: flat, a lot of paths and a good runability. The distance for H21E was 15.4km with 100m climbing and for women elite: 8.6km. This competitions counts as a world ranking event.

Pasquasy takes revenge:

In class H21E the French runner, Johan Tinchant, had an early starttime (no advantage in this kind of terrain). He ran a good race without making big mistakes and finished his race in 1h22'. The strong Belgian runners had a late starttime and Geert Simkens was the first one who nearly beat Tinchant. Simkens was only 30sec slowers and finally finished in 5th spot.

Pieter Hendrickx performed even stronger. The WOC-runner made a new besttime (1h19') despite some big mistakes in the beginning of the race. The athlete who started 4 minutes behind him (Ken Peeters) even saw Hendrickx at the 5th control.

Michel Bastin was the next runner, sprinting to the finish. Despite his high speed in the finisharea, he became 4th only 3 seconds slower than Tinchant. Only one person was able to beat Hendrickx toptime: Fabien Pasquasy. The tallest and fastest orienteer in the forest ran almost 3 minutes faster than Hendrickx. This new besttime was good enough to become the Belgian champion long distance 2009!

Results:

1. Fabien PASQUASY 1:16:39

2. Pieter HENDRICKX 1:19:14

3. Johann TINCHANT 1:22:26

4. Michel BASTIN 1:22:29

5. Geert SIMKENS 1:22:58

6. Ken PEETERS 1:23:33

The omega-girls won the gold medal at the relay champs last week and won bronze, silver and gold at the long distance champs

Close fight in womens race:
In class D21E, the Belgian champs long distance became a real thriller. Three girls from the same team finished within 17 seconds! These few seconds decided about bronze, silver and gold. During the whole race the fight for gold was very close, but at the end Kim Geypen took the victory. She was 6 seconds faster than Miek Fabré and 17 seconds faster than juniorrunner Elisabeth Henkes.

Results:
1. Kim GEYPEN 0:59:21
2. Miek FABRÉ 0:59:27
3. Elisabeth HENKES 0:59:38
4. Greet OEYEN 1:02:26
5. Sofie HERREMANS 1:04:54
6. Severine VANDERMEULEN 1:07:30

Results
Splittimes
Map H21E: Part1 - Part2