Trol and Westfalen trainingscamp in the Netherlands

Since 2008 the German club Westfalen and the Belgian club Trol have a trainingscamp together in february. This year the place to be was Otterlo in the Netherlands, here 2 nice maps were waiting for the 40 runners (from Trol, Westfalen and also 2 runners from Nolb).

On friday evening the athletes started with a night training (no orienteering, just running) and on saturday it was time for the real trainings. The first training was a corridor orienteering with mass start and forking on the map Arnhemse Heide. Trol junior runner Jeremy Genar showed his technical skills and won this training in group 1.

Map Corridor-o (Koen de Jong)

The 2nd training on saturday morning was a score-o. The best runners got an oro-hydro map and only 30 minutes to score as much points as possible. This time it was again a junior runner, who is aiming for jwoc in Denmark, who took the victory: Koen de Jong.

Map Score-o (Koen de Jong)

Meike Kleist (Westfalen) at trainingscamp

In the afternoon it was the right time for some speed work: o-intervals. Group 1 (10 runners) started in mass-start, the person who arrived 1st at the control had to wait untill the last one of the group had passed. Then this person could start chasing and and try to catch up runners again. When you were victorious and waiting at the control, you could recuperate ofcourse. Group 1 had to punch 32 controls (8.5km). During this training Sören Riechers showed his fast legs, he won ahead of Ken Peeters and Christoph Prunsche. In group 2 Desmond Franssen and Adriaan Pelckmans were victorious. In this group Anne van Zweeden was the best female runner ahead of Linda Beckmann.

Map o-intervals (Ken Peeters)

On sunday the last training took place (Edese Heide), the famous relay competition. The strongest runners had to run the 1st leg. Again Kenji Peeters (who is selected for the interland competition) was unbeatable. He won 2 minutes ahead of a trio: Christoph Prunsche, Sören Riechers and Desmond Franssen. Jeremy Genar, Felix Späth and Koen de Jong were less than 1 minute behind this trio. In the total ranking the Westfalenteam Christoph Prunsche, Linda Beckmann and Sandra Urbanietz finished in 1st position.

Results relay
Map relay (Ken Peeters)

Conclusion: it was a very nice trainingscamp on nice and demanding terrains with good maps. A lot of strong opponents were present to increase the level of the trainings and most runners did a lot of running kilometers during the weekend (for example Ken Peeters more than 45km). Thanks to the clubs and specially Peter Bleyens for the organisation.