Krier is the first to beat Olle Kärner in Belgium

Since a month the Estonian national team runner, Olle Karner, started living in Belgium. Up to now he won all races, where he showed up at the startline. But today, at the national middle distance race in Arlon, it turned out differently.

No starttime problems, a technical area, a nice map and use the compass were the ingredients from todays competition. Jean-francois Krier already performed strong some months ago during the Transforestiere 2011 in this same area. Last week, during the long distance champs, he suffered physically during the 2nd part of the race. But today he showed that he can handle a middle distance in his favourit terrain. He ran a really good race and succeeded to take the victory. He was almost 2 minutes faster than the Estonian favourit, Karner. Desmond Franssen finished in 3rd position, 7 seconds behind Karner. Michel Bastin became 4th, Francois Van der Ouderaarde 5th and the revelation from last week, Benjamin Anciaux, became 6th.
An other favourit, Andrei Pijak, show up in his new-Swedish-team-outfit (from OK Tisaren). But he had an offday and finished in 13th position.


Jean-francois Krier during the Belgian relay champs 2011

In womens class some good runners were absent. It was Asub who dominated this class with a victory (Béatrice De Longueville) and a 3rd position (Vinciane Mulpas). Véronique Bastin lost the close fight for the victory and came in as 2nd today.

Results
Splits
Map (with routechoices Desmond Franssen)
Map (with routechoices Michel Bastin)

Olle Kärner and Miek Fabre win Belgian long champs

Yesterday the most important competition in Belgium took place. 29 runners in H21E and 10 runners in D21E were ready to fight for the title as Belgian champion long distance in Gruitroderbos. The map is one of the most technical areas in Flanders, for sure with the scale 1/15000. Avoiding mistakes and running at high speed would be the key to the victory.

Miek Fabre outstanding:
The arena at the competition was really nice and it was up to the women to start as first. One by one they showed up on a podium (like at springcup) to start their race. The time interval between the 10 runners was (only) 2 minutes and the order was based on the WRE ranking from a month ago.

Miek Fabre was the big favourit today and started in last position. Already at the 1st control she caught up with Monika Depta (who started 2min ahead of her). Depta tried and succeeded to run a bit away from Fabre. But after making mistakes at control 6 and 7 her race was ruined. Depta finally finished in 3rd position (in todays WRE). Aline Hermans ran a decent race and got 2nd. Miek Fabre was really outstanding today. She won her race in 65' (10 minutes faster than Hermans) and overtook 7 out of 9 runners.

Only runners living in Belgium are allowed to become Belgian champion, so at the podium we saw: 1st Miek Fabre (65'44), 2nd Aline Hermans (75'11) and 3rd Catherine Hoofd (82'46).



Olle Kärner wins in H21E:
After all women had entered the forest, it was up to the H21E runners to show up at the podium one by one. Same procedure as for women, 2min time interval between the runners and the best ranked runners started at the end. Most elite runners (only a few exceptions didn't) already complained about the small time interval on forehand. But the organisation didn't react about this subject.

About the race itself: it was Benjamin Anciaux who came as first elite runner into the finishline. He ran a good race without big mistakes and finished in 1h27'. The speaker said that this was a good result, but probably a lot of other runners would do better in todays race. After some waiting, Thomas van der Kleij was the first to beat Anciaux's besttime. van der Kleij finished in 1h25 and got the 4th position overall today.
Then it was time for Olle Kärners show. He started in last position with a lot of strong Belgian runners ahead of him. He succeeded to overtake 12 runners during his race. His new besttime was 1h18 (actually the winning time at the Belgian long champs should be 1h30). Together with him we saw Fabien Pasquasy (2nd position with 1h20), Geert Simkens, Tarmo Kuub, Sergey Fedatsenka (3rd position with 1h23), Ken Peeters and Tomas Hendrickx (6th position with 1h27).
So for todays WRE the podium was: 1. Olle Kärner 1h18, 2. Fabien Pasquasy 1h20, 3. Sergey Fedotsenko 1h23.
In the Belgian champs: 1. Fabien Pasqausy 1h20, 2. Thomas van der Kleij 1h25 and 3. Benjamin Anciaux 1h27.

Results
Splits
Map H21E
Photos podium

Interview of the month: The Lundanes brothers

Every month Delaatstepost's top-journalist Toon Melis is going to interview some of the top stars in Orienteering. As first interview we have an exclusive interview with the LUNDANES BROTHERS. Enjoy!

Toon: Do you know "De laatste post" and do you have any idea what it means?
Olav: I have read some of the articles from "De laatste post" published in English on WorldOfO, so I know the page quite well. I guess "De laatste post" means "the last control", because the Dutch language is always a mess between Norwegian, German and English :).
Ivar: I’ve been following the site for some years, and I remember Thierry’s answer to the same question, and if I’m not wrong it means both “the last control” and “the latest news”.

Toon: What do you know about Belgian Orienteering?
Olav: I don`t know too much about Belgian Orienteering, but I have seen quite many maps, and they are normally very flat, but I guess there should be some hills in the Ardennes. Of course you don't have too many terrains, and they are not as challenging as we are used to in Norway. I have also read a bit about the 5-days event around Christmas, and I hope to compete there one day.
Ivar: I can’t say that I know a lot about Belgian Orienteering, but I have seen many maps and I know that you have some good runners (WOC finalists). I also know most of the guys of the Belgian junior team, so I’ve got some “inside information” of how orienteering works in Belgium ;). I think that the main difference between Belgian orienteering and Norwegian orienteering is that we can train in every forest we want whenever we want to, while you guys need to get access, and that there are many more orienteers in Norway.

Toon: You both went to the World Champs this year! Ivar to JWOC and Olav to WOC. Are you satisfied with the results and races?
Olav: Overall, I am satisfied with my WOC. The long distance was a big disappointment, but the middle and relay were good races. This year there was nothing I could do with Thierry.
Ivar: For me JWOC was only a big disappointment. I got sick before the sprint and missed out of the long distance, which I had prepared very well for. I was never able to recover before the middle and the relay, so I was not able to perform at the level I wanted to. Before the championship I wanted to fight for medals, but I was not even close to it...

Toon: I have been training in your home terrain ''Blindheimsfjellet" and still I am not a top orienteer? Help! What do you recommend me to do, to become one?
Olav: My best advice is to travel a lot to competitions and trainings in Scandinavia from an early age. It is also important to use the opportunities you have in Belgium as good as possible. I would guess that it is possible to become the best compass runner in the world even if you live in Belgian.
Ivar: I think that all orienteers needs to travel a lot to different kind of terrains to develop as an orienteer. For a Belgian orienteer I would say that training and competitions in Scandinavia and Finland would be important, because most of the terrains here are so different from what you have. For us in Scandinavia, it is important to go to southern and eastern Europe because we do not have terrains like that here. To be the best, you must learn to master all kinds of terrain.

Toon: You have some other members in the family as well, Ingrid (13 yearsold) and Bjørn (18 years old). Do you think they will make it in theNorwegian national team as well in the future?
Olav: I think all my brothers and sisters have great potential, but it requires a lot of hard work to success. Bjørn is also a good cross-countryskier, so maybe he wants to focus on that instead of orienteering.
Ivar: Bjørn is strong physically, and he has some podium results in the national junior cup this year, so he’s on a high level. If he’s keeping up the good work, I think it would be possible for him to run JWOC in two years. My sisters are still very young, but they have showed some talent already. Everything is possible if you work hard enough. “If you believe it, you can do it”...
Toon: What are your goals for the next years?
Olav: For the next year I want to continue to develop as an orienteer. My goal in WOC is of course to stand on the top!
Ivar: I think it will be really hard to qualify for WOC next year, but I hope to develop as an orienteer both technically and physically. Hopefully I will be stronger for every year, and take my level closer to Olav’s level step by step. I think WOC in Italy 2014 will suit me very well...

Toon: You both have moved from Ålesund now. Which is the best place to live for becoming the best orienteer: Stockholm or Halden?
Olav: Of course Halden is the best place ;). To be serious, I think we have a big amount of high quality maps, many trainings with many good runners, good climate and a great relay team. In total I think it makes Halden the best training environment in the world.
Ivar: I would say that Halden probably is the best place in the world for an orienteer. They have a lot of great maps, a lot of interesting terrain, many top runners, good climate for orienteering (the best in Norway at least) and a very strong organisation in Halden Skiklubb. Stockholm is different, but still very good. There is a lot of maps here, but most of them are quite small and very “urban” with a lot of paths. The terrain in Halden is more “wild”, and personally I think that is more interesting and more fun. However, you are running faster in the Stockholm terrain, and for me it’s important to develop in “fast orienteering”, so for me I think Stockholm is better right now ;).

Toon: How do you see orienteering in 50 years? What kind of evolutions will happen?
Olav: If we look 50 years back, there has been a lot of changes since 1960. In 50 years I think we have bigger scale on the maps, the map readingskills is even more important, more nations attending orienteering, a lot of new gadgets that helps the spectator to follow the competition(headcams etc.) and a lot more nations taking part in WOC.
Ivar: I’m pretty sure the technology will develop, and I guess the use of GPS and Headcams will increase. Maybe the map will no longer be on paper, but on some kind of electronic board, where you can Zoom in and out as you want, with built-in compass? That would be quite cool, and stop the discussion about map scale! Hopefully it will also still be some real orienteering, and not just shit like knock-out sprints, normal sprints, mass start races and chasing start races in parks or urban forests...

Toon: Now some more private (but not less interesting) questions. You'reboth single.. Does your future girlfriend have to be an orienteer aswell?
Olav: I don't think I can set such high standards...
Ivar: That’s not the most important thing...

Toon: What is the best (J)WOC party you have ever been to and why?
Olav: Maybe the JWOC banquet in 2006, but I don't have so many reasons. I am not a big fan of banquets..
Ivar: I’ve only been to one JWOC, and even if my results and races from the competitions were bad, the party was great. By far the best party I’ve ever been to...


Olav and Ivar in action: Olav winning the long distance at woc on homsoil and Ivar on his way to the jwocparty!