Veluwe 2-days: maps and results

Miek Fabré (Bel), Ausrine Kutkaite (Ltu) and Maren Jansson Haverstad (Nor) took the medals in womens class at the world ranking event at the Veluwe 2-days in the Netherlands. In mens class the Belgian boys from Hamok overclassed the others by taking gold (Thomas van der Kleij), silver (Benjamin Anciaux) and bronze (Jeroen Hoekx).

As we can read above some strong runners were present at this 2-days orienteering event. The competition started with a long distance race on saturday. In H21 class Jiri Bouchal (Cze) took the victory. He said (like last week at the Flemish middle champs) that he isn't in great shape at the moment. But again he didn't make big mistakes and succeeded in taking the victory. Desmond Franssen (Bel) again was 2nd (also like last week), ahead of Thomas van der Kleij (Bel). Thomas van der Kleij commented that he felt tired because of the travelling on friday, but he tried to push hard anyway. He had enjoyed the first half of the race very much, because it was more technical than the 2nd part. In womens class Kim Geypen made her comeback in the orienteering world and immediately won the race. No one of the opponents could match her running speed. The Norwegian Maren Jansson Haverstad became 2nd ahead of Greet Oeyen. Miek Fabré ended up in 6th position because she sprained her ankle during the race.

Results day 1
Splits day 1
Map day 1 (H21 - Desmond Franssen)

Ausrine Kutkaite @ wre Beekhuizerzand (photo: olv minor)

The second stage was a world ranking event and took place on the great map Beekhuizerzand (very well mapped by Orest Kotylo some years ago). The terrain offers some demanding and technical orienteering. In womens class we saw a close fight between local star Miek Fabré and the Lithuanian runner Ausrine Kutkaite. Kutkaite commented about her race: "the competition was really nice. Actually I had a quite good race, but made some small mistakes. And maybe i ran too slow in the beginning." In the end she was 11 seconds slower than the winner, Miek Fabré. Maren Jansson Haverstad (champion of the overall ranking) took the 3rd spot, 1min30 behind Fabré.
In mens class 3 Belgians from the same club dominated the race. All of them were satisfied with their race. Jeroen Hoekx showed that he can do a good race when he's really motivated. He surprisingly recovered fast from the toughest night from the hamok clubweekend and took the bronze medal in the wre race. Anciaux is finally getting in shape again after his injury and finished 2nd. The victory was for Thomas van der Kleij. After this victory he's the 3rd best Belgian on the world ranking (without having the opportunity to score high points at the Woc races).
Because of this victory he almost took the overall victory. But in this close fight Jiri Bouchal won the total ranking because of his good race on saturday. He was 44 seconds faster than Franssen (2nd) and 1min18 faster than van der Kleij (3rd).

 

Results day 2

Splits day 2
Overall results
Map day 2 (H21 - Desmond Franssen)

Podium WRE: Anciaux - van der Kleij - Fabré - Hoekx (photo: olv Minor)

GP Melis
Soon the registration for Gp Melis will come to an end. Last year 78 participants (results 2012) showed up at the startline. At this moment only 68 athletes have registered for this mass start event. In Belgium only a few relays take place every year, so this is an excellent opportunity to test your orienteering skills with your direct opponents around you. An ideal training for athletes with ambitions in relays (like tiomila and jukola) and a must for athletes who aim high at fast relays (like Woc mixed sprint relay). Don't hesitate and support the organisation. Registration:

Website Gp Melis

Organisor Toon Melis @ veluwe 2-days (photo: olv minor)

WC Spiekelspade
As we could read in the review from the national coach about last weekend, not all national team members were present at the Veluwe 2-days. Some athletes prefered to race at the wintercriterium event in Spiekelspade. Saartje Sallaerts took the victory in class D1 and Julien Gillet was 28 seconds faster than Adriaan Pelckmans in H1.
Because of this 2nd spot, Adriaan Pelckmans is the current leader in the famous WC-ranking. In womens class Sallaerts, Vermonden and Hermans all have 1000 points.

Results WC Spiekelspade
Overall WC Ranking


Eyoc Portugal
We already could read about the nice individual results from our youth runners on the website from the Flemish federation. But they didn't mention the good performance from the boys in the relay. Drygalski - Gillet - Leeuws ended up 5th in the Eyoc relay.