Jeneverrelay review: Thiels defends the title

 5 November 2024, a new chapter in the history books has been written as the Jeneverrelay took place in the Arenbergpark in Leuven. After the 2023 edition was canceled due to the course setter being in Kenya for a training camp, everyone was very excited to put on their orienteering shoes and night lamp to go to the start of the anticipated Jeneverrelay. 

The competition field was very diverse and ranging up to 30 competitors with high and less high orienteering level. Some noteworthy presences were the athletes from Louvain-La-Neuve that were so excited they even took the train on a random Tuesday evening to compete in one of the biggest (orienteering) events for students in Belgium. They were so inspired after their race that they invented a brand new competition on the 29th of November in Louvain-La-Neuve called “Schnaps-O” (Stay tuned for a review on that competition). Another special competitor was old SLOK student Toon Melis who set aside his political career to go back to his roots as a pro orienteer and was ready to perform in the competition.

As usual everyone was divided in teams of 2/3 persons while combining an experienced runner with a less experienced runner. Each runner runs 2 legs and has to drink a cup of jenever before they can leave. This year course setter Julia Krekels made a very nice and tricky course and even put in a special feature. At some controls a map was present that showed the location of  a hidden control which was equipped with sheets of paper that could reduce your total time by X minutes.  The tension was very high as the first leg runners went to the starting line with their cup of delicious jenever in their hands. And then the games began…

After the first leg a group of three runners finished first with Victor Mullens leading the pack followed by Liam Thiels and Jorn Kennis. They handed over to their less experienced teammate. During the following legs only Miel Deferme noticed and used the hidden control and gained 3 minutes subtracted from their total time. Finally the first teams started to finish their fourth leg and we had a podium with A winner in the team of Miel and Gaëlle and a shared third place between the team of Toon Melis and Joris Smet and the team of Colin and Francois. But then a big plot twist revealed itself. The team of defending champion Liam Thiels arrived 21 minutes after the first team (accounting for the time that Miel gained) and was in last position. But then it appeared that Liam also went to the hidden control and managed to grab time subtraction papers for a total of 22 minutes which meant that his team would arrive on top and in doing so Thiels defended his title of two years ago. A nice picture of the podium was taken.

Afterwards some runners went to their homes, others to Louvain-La-Neuve and others went to party like crazy and some of them drank a bit too much. I will not give more details on that but his name rimes with Korn ;) 

Let us now look forward to the brand new event in Louvain-La-Neuve and to the Beer relay in the second semester that will be organised by Jorn Kennis.

Thank you to the organisation and see you next year

Bye