Belgium 3-days: Fedatsenka and Fabré

Last weekend a very important sportscompetition took place next to Liège. We are not talking about  'le tour de France', but an even more prestigious event: the Belgium 3-days! This multiday event started with a WRE long distance race in Wéris.

In class H21E the big favourit, Fabien Pasquasy, showed that he's still the best Belgian orienteer in this kind of terrain. The race with steep hills was physical demanding, but it was also important to read the map carefully (for sure with the little symbols and 1/15.000 mapscale). Pasquasy took the victory with a 1h21 besttime. The other favourit Yannick Michiels came in with the 2nd besttime, but he punched a wrong control (at ctrl 19). So he got disqualified at his last Belgian race before leaving for WUOC and WOC.
Good old Michel Bastin (almost H35) showed that it's dangerous to not mention him among the favourits or outsiders in a preview on this website. He did a solid performance and his pace was good enough to finish in 2nd position. He even sprained his ankle towards the 5th control, but he showed some 'grinta' and completed the whole course. It was Joost Talloen who took the bronze medal ahead of Fedatsenka (4th), T. Hendrickx (5th) and Peeters (6th).

Results day 1
Map day 1 (H21E - D. Franssen)

At the 2nd stage, no one of the top-2 was present. At this middle distance event, Fedatsenka found his favourit terrain. His powerful legs were perfect for these steep hills and stony underground. He won this stage ahead of the Estonian runner Olle Karner and the Belgian athlete Tomas Hendrickx. These 3 runners will al be present at WOC 2012 representing 3 different countries.

Results day 2
Map day 2 (H21E - D. Franssen)

The 3rd stage was again a long distance race. Again we had a different winner in H21E. Thomas van der Kleij had been sick last week and couldn't finish the 1st stage. But day by day, he was getting stronger and proved this during etappe 3. He won almost 4 minutes ahead of Sergey Fedatsenka and even 8 minutes ahead of Hendrickx.

Results day 3
Map day 3 (not elite!)

In the total ranking only 5 runners completed this tough Belgium 3-days with on the podium: Sergey Fedatsenka (1st), Tomas Hendrickx (2nd) and Ken Peeters (3rd).

Final ranking

Aline hermans into the finish at the 3rd stage of the Belgium 3-days

In class D21E Miek Fabré didn't give any presents to her opponents. She won every single stage and ofcourse she also won the total ranking. Greet Oeyen secured her 2nd spot during the last stage and won the silver medal. Aline Hermans completed the podium in this class.

International competitions:
At the moment 4 Belgian runners are competing at the world university champs in Alicante (Spain). Today they ran the long distance race and Yannick Michiels became 46th, Jeremy Genar 73th and Adriaan Pelckmans didn't punch all controls (results - map). Tomorrow they will compete in a technical and hilly sprint race (startlist).
Last but not least: Jeroen Hoekx and Benjamin Anciaux are discovering the Finnish terrains (woc 2013). They are participating at a high level competition in H21E (results - map day1) during the Kainuun Rastiviikko 2012. These races are only 30km away from WOC2013 area.