Sylvester 5days: final stage

The final stage of the Sylvester 5-days took place in Ravels. The race was organised in the same forest as yesterday, but this time the south part of the map was used. The runnability was better than yesterday and most participants enjoyed it more.

In class H21E Christoph Brandt showed again why he won the overall ranking by also winning the last stage. While his opponents got more tired day by day, he kept his best performance for the last stage. He almost made no mistakes and also his runningspeed was impressive. Finally he won the race by 1'42" ahead of Marvin Goericke.
Pieter Hendrickx and Bojan Blumenstein were still in a close fight for the silver medal in the overall ranking. The Belgian worldchampion finished 2 seconds ahead of Blumenstein (4th today) and secured his 2nd spot. Ueli Werren and Moritz Dollgast completed the top-6 today.

The German delegation enjoyed the Sylvester 5-days and the sunny weather

In women's class Greet Oeyen again performed strong today. She won the final stage and the overall victory. She enjoyed the course very much and specially wanted to thank todays coursesetter for his great job.
By absence of Josephine Greiner, Liesbeth van de Velde could secure the 2nd spot in the overall ranking today. She finished 2'41" behind Oeyen. Salome Schweizer from Suisse finished 3rd and completed the podium today.

In junior class, the Flemih junior coach organised the Junior Cup (a competition with a knock-out system). Today the finals took place between Klaas Mellebeek and Simon Krekels. Mellebeek succeeded to win the overall 5-days competition, but the Junior Cup was won by Simon Krekels.

Klaas Mellebeek and Simon Krekels posing for delaatstepost-camera

Thanks to the Flemish federation, the clubs and the volunteers to make the Sylvester 5-days again an enjoyable event. Thanks to the participants for their presence and performances. Hopefully we'll see you again in the end of december 2016.

Results stage 5
Splittimes stage 5
Map stage 5 (H21E - Desmond Franssen)
Map stage 5 (H21E - Bojan Blumenstein)
Overall ranking
Ravels-zuid (old map by other mapmaker - 2013)

Sylvester 5days: again Germany and Oeyen

Today Germany took a 3rd victory in class H21E. This time it was Bojan Blumenstein who was the strongest in Ravels. In women's class Greet Oeyen took her 2nd victory in 4 days.

The 4th stage took place in Ravels. The terrain is different compared with the previous days. First of all it was totally flat, almost no contourlines. The runability was worse than yesterday and the map was renewed by a Lithuanian mapmaker. Finally it looks like the terrain suited Bojan Blumenstein very well. The German athlete is used to tough terrains in Norway and won the race by 13 seconds ahead of Christoph Brandt (who is almost sure about the overall victory now). Pieter Hendrickx finished 3rd after a mistake at control 12.
Bjarne Friedrichs (GER), Ueli Werren (SUI) and Johann Tinchant (FRA) completed the top-6.

Bojan Blumenstein in action at WOC 2015 (mixed sprint relay)

In women's class Denisova and Geypen were absent today (and tomorrow). Greet Oeyen secured the overall victory by winning the 4th stage in Ravels. Specially in the end she was stronger than her opponent Liesbeth van de Velde. We are curious if she'll also try to win the last stage (with her husband as coursesetter) or she'll give a christmaspresent to her opponents.
Josephine Greiner (GER) finished as 3rd today and will fight for the silver medal tomorrow against van de Velde.

Results stage 3
Splittimes stage 3
Map (H21E - Desmond Franssen)
Map (H21E - Bojan Blumenstein)
Overall ranking

Sylvester WRE: Bloemen and Denisova

In an exciting race, Tristan Bloemen won the third stage and World Ranking Event of the Sylvester five-days 2015. Christoph Brandt had to settle for second place after his victories in the first two stages. Running perhaps even slightly faster than Bloemen, the German lost too much time in small mistakes near the control circle compared to the fresh Belgian, who took a break from studying to win today's race.

Map H21E (routechoices D. Franssen)

The open forests of Pijnven proved once again to be worthy of a high level race, where every second time loss is one second too much. Tough running through the grass lead to third place Bojan Blumenstein being 1:34 behind. The German of Nydalens SK could never really match the pace of the two leaders and had some mistakes, but still secured his spot by more than 40 seconds, thanks to a late mispunch of Benjamin Anciaux.

Anastasia Denisova repeated her stellar performance of yesterday and outclassed the competition again. Losing only 3 splits along the way she was in a league of her own today. Kim Geypen in second place and Greet Oeyen in third couldn't match the pace nor avoid mistakes like the Belarussian did. Oeyen however, increased her lead in the overall Sylvester ranking.

The next two stages will bring a complete change of terrain as the slow contours of day 1 and the sand dunes of days 2 and 3 will be replaced by completely flat terrain with very distinct vegetations.

• Results day 3
• Splits day 3
• Map (H21E - Bojan Blumenstein)

Bloemen in Brand(t)

Het was vandaag op Pijnven nuttig dat het grootste brandweerkorps van de regio op een goede 500m vogelvlucht van het wedstrijdterrein gekazerneerd is (al kunnen wij niet nalaten te vermelden dat Anciaux daar óók al weg is gegaan). Het tempo van Tristan Bloemen en Christoph Brandt was namelijk verschroeiend vandaag tijdens de WRE van de Sylvester vijfdaagse.

Bloemen stond duidelijk gemotiveerd aan de start: kort broekje, singletje, crossschoenen, maar dan met titanium studs uit een paar VJ Bolds erin. De goede tijden van het Crosscupseizoen zorgden er dan ook voor dat de ex-hamokker geen enkele reden had om aan zichzelf te twijfelen.

Brandt stond evenzeer met vertrouwen aan de startlijn. Ging al twee dagen met de overwinning lopen, waarbij zelfs wat foutjes loopsgewijs rechtgezet konden worden.

Beide heren waren dan ook aan elkaar gewaagd gedurende de hele wedstrijd. Splits op benen zonder fout waren nagenoeg identiek, maar het waren uiteindelijk 30 seconden verliestijd op post 12 die de Duitser de das omdeden.

Niet op de finishfoto, maar wel op de derde plaats op het podium, vinden we de volgende Duitser, de voor zijn Noorse club Nydalens uitkomende Bojan Blumenstein.

Bij de dames was het lang niet zo spannend. De Wit-Russische Anastasia Denisova was een klasse te sterk voor de Belgische dames. Ze was bijna 5 minuten sneller dan Kim Geypen en een dikke 6 minuten voor Greet Oeyen, die wel haar leiderspositie in de Sylvester vijfdaagse kon uitbouwen. Oeyen begon naar eigen zeggen de vermoeidheid te voelen, maar daar lijkt de concurrentie al evenzeer last van te hebben.

Morgen en overmorgen verhuist het circus naar Ravels, waar deze zomervijfdaagse in de winter zijn ontknoping zal krijgen.

Sylvester 5days: Brandt and Denisova

Today the 2nd stage of Sylvester 5-days took place in the Netherlands, Ossendrecht. The map hasn't been used since the Belgian middle distance championships 2008. It was more than 7 years ago that this beautiful terrain was used for orienteering.

Map D21E (with routechoices from Anastasia Denisova)

In class H21E Christoph Brandt had an early starttime today. He had a good race untill he made a big mistake at the 16th control in the open area. His speed in this tough terrain was good enough to compensate this mistake and he won the race ahead of Pieter Hendrickx (2nd).
Both Sergey Fedatsenka (3rd) and Desmond Franssen (4th) lost more than 1min30 at the 14th control, which wasn't placed correctly (even outside the controlcircle) by the organisors. But even without this mistake they weren't able to beat Brandt today.
Thomas van der Kleij (5th), Jeroen Hoekx (6th), Bojan Blumenstein (7th) and Ueli Werren (8th) are still fighting for the podium in the overall ranking. Also the young Swiss runner lost crucial time at control 14 and made a big mistake towards the 2nd last control.

Trolrunners analysing the race with the coursesetter at the finish

In women's class the Belarus national team runner, Anastasia Denisova was outstanding. She liked todays terrain, but she expected a more challenging coursesetting. "It was a pitty that some technical (green parts with detailed contourlines) areas weren't used in todays course. My performance was good and stable. I felt strong and only made a mistake at control 10".
Ausrine Kutkaite (LTU) finished 2nd more than 4 minutes behind. Greet Oeyen (leading the overall ranking) finished 3rd, ahead of Kim Geypen (4th), Indre Valaite (5th) and Josephine Greiner (6th).

Anastasia Denisova at WUOC 2014 (2nd in sprint distance)

Results stage 2
Splittimes stage 2
Map H21E (Desmond Franssen)
Map D21E (Anastasia Denisova)
Map and article (Ausrine Kutkaite)

Sylvester 5days: map and results stage 1

For good weather during a winter trainingscamp, there is no need to travel to Spain or Portugal. Today the Sylvester 5-days in Belgium started with a sunny and warm day at Kattevenia. In men's class the German Christoph Brandt took the victory and in women's class Greet Oeyen won the race.

Kattevenia wasn't announced as the best map of the Sylvester 2015 edition, but the coursesetter did a good job and made the race interesting. Christoph Brandt enjoyed the race. He made a 1 minute mistake towards the 3rd control, but had a very good race afterwards. Pieter Hendrickx also had a good running speed and finished 2nd, 23 seconds behind. 

The young Swiss athlete, Ueli Werren, already experienced the Belgian terrains at JEC2014. He finsihed today in 3rd position, ahead of the German national team athlete, Bojan Blumenstein. Also Johann Tinchant, Benjamin Anciaux and Marvin Goericke can still fight for the podium in the overall ranking.

Christoph Brandt in action at Worldcup in Arosa

In women's class the overall victory in 2014 was for the Belgian orienteer, Greet Oeyen. Also in 2015 she's one of the favourits after winning the first stage. Kim Geypen (2nd), Liesbeth Van de Velde (3rd) and Josephine Greiner (4th) are still close and maybe can take revenge tomorrow.

Tomorrow we can expect the most technical stage at Ossendrecht. According to Jan-Gerard van der Toorn (who is one of the organisors tomorrow) the map had a big update (see photos below). We are curious who will fight for the victory tomorrow with some new runners at the startline.

 Ossendrecht 2015 fragment

Ossendrecht old fragment

Results stage 1

Splittimes stage 1

Map H21E (Desmond Franssen)
Website Sylvester 5-days
Facebook event Sylvester

Sylvester: 2 days untill last entry deadline

More than 500 participants are registered for Sylvester 5-days 2015 in Belgium. At the moment class H21E is the biggest with 49 registrations, but also in the other classes we see an interesting startfield. Still 2 days left untill the last entry deadline. Don't miss the biggest o-event in Belgium.

Elke Verdeyen (BEL) is already looking forward to stage 3 from Sylvester 5-days 2015

List of participants

Sylvester 5 website

Sylvester 5 facebook