Belgian night champs: Pasquasy and Oeyen strike again

Yesterday evening the Belgian national champs night distance took place in Chevetogne. In class H21E and D21E we had exactly the same winners as last year (results 2009).

Fabien Pasquasy had some problems with his back since more than week, but he was still the big favourit to win this event. As last runner he started his race, but came out of the forest with the new besttime. He made some small mistakes (2 minutes in total, he thought), but was satisfied about his performance. At control 19 he made his biggest mistake when he saw Pieter Hendrickx (who started 6 minutes ahead of him and who took the bronze medal). Pasquasy was happy about his victory but worried about his back. During the race he fell again and everything felt more painfull again afterwards. Hopefully he'll be able to run the physical testrun with the national team next week.
Thomas van der Kleij finished in 2nd place (the same position as in 2009) 5 minutes slower than Pasquasy. He was satisfied about his technical performance, but physically it was no fantastic day despite his good feeling about the race. Also van der Kleij didn't run injuryfree, he's suffering a knee injury since more than 6 months.

Results H21E (7.9km and 335m climbing):
1. Fabien Pasuasy 50'
2. Thomas van der Kleij 53'
3. Pieter Hendrickx 55'
4. Joost Talloen 55'
5. Bart Delobel 58'

Map H21E (routechoices Desmond Franssen)

In class D21E we expected a fight between Greet Oeyen and Miek Fabre. The Hamok-runner ran a steady race and won 4 minutes ahead of Miek Fabre. So Greet Oeyen took again the gold medal despite a heavy trainingsweek. She's preparing for the physical testrun, which will take place next saturday in Brussels. She's a little bit worried about it and it will depend on her form of the day, she told us. She prepared for this test as good as possible and even trained in the area this week.
Miek Fabre isn't really worried about the testrun, but plans an easy trainingsweek. Only 2 trainings next week and then she'll be in topshape on saturday...

Results
Splits
Map H21E
Photos (Jochen Verdeyen)

JWOC Selections:
At the Belgian night champs all junior runners were absent because of the selection races for JWOC in Denmark. They are competing this weekend in Holland and ran the sprint and middle distance yesterday. Today they will run the long distance, which Koen de Jongh ran yesterday (comments from Koen de Jongh about the long distance). Also Wouter Foppen ran this race 2 weeks ago (comments from Wouter Foppen).

Poland and Springcup:
Yesterday the Belgian runners performed strong in Poland at the early Springcup, all of them (Ken Peeters, Wiet Laenen, Luc Melis, Marc Meeuwssen and Koen Meynen) finished in top3. Today they will run the relay competition.
In two weeks the real springcup will take place in Denmark. A Belgian team will be present: Joost Talloen, Thomas van der Kleij, Jeroen van der Kleij, Dries van der Kleij and Benjamin Anciaux will run in the Belgian all stars team. Jeremy Genar and Ken Peeters will defend the colours from Sibbo-Vargarna and Bart Delobel and Wouter Leeuws for IF Brahe. In the long distance only Thomas van der Kleij is selected for H21E1, the others will run in H21E2 or H20E (startlist).