Preview ULD

 This Sunday, the yearly ultra long distances races in Forêt de Soignes will take place. This race is special because it is in teams of 2, started in a mass start and the course is ultra long. Last year in the longest class, it came down to a sprint between the team of Willem Bakelants & Liam Thiels against the team of Gilles De Neyer & Thibaut Robinson. In the end, the team of Omega (Willem & Liam) got the win, only 19 seconds before Gilles & Thibaut. A foreign team of 2 Danish runners, Giacomo Schmidt Frattari & Simon Thrane Hansen completed the podium (only 1’02” behind). In the moyen class, the victory went to 2 Belgian junior orienteers, Mathis Brouwier & Arnaud Mazy. On second place we had the veterans Kim Jansen & Jan Oeyen and third the youngsters Pjotr Mertens & Bob de Cleene. The shortest class was won by Olivier de Smul & Ems de Smul, Béatrice De Longueville & Christophe Amerijckx got second place and on third spot were Peter & Bart Van De Moortel.

This year the distances are: 19.1km – 13.4km – 8.3km. The winners of this competition will be physically strong athletes for sure. But the terrain has also some technical parts in case of  fine orienteering. The terrain consists of a dense network of paths with some bigger hills in it. The vegetation is often very detailed with small green parts. More information on O'Punch.

 

Old map (2016) - Mathias Blaise

ULD Long stars:

3 stars - ***
- Wouter Leeuws & Evert Leeuws: won in 2021, 2019 and didn’t participate after. Evert has showed he’s already in great shape at the physical test. Wouter ran the 2th fastest time at the avondaflossing last week. They can certainly run the distance and have the experience which will give them an adventage over the younger teams.
- Mathis Brouwier & Arnaud Mazy: are still juniors. But they have showed that they can do some great things (physically and technically). They won the moyen distance last year (their km-time was only 4”/km slower than last year’s winner in the longest category)

2 stars - **
- Nico Ceunen & Lennert Lens: technically not the best runners in Belgium but physically they will be there and they both have a really good fighting spirit. They won the avondaflossing (together with Greet Oeyen) and have been running together for quite some races, so they really have the bromance.
- Corneel Casier & Rune de Clercq: have the right combination of technical and physical capabilities. The question is, if they can hold on in the lead for 20km (±2h). Both are in good shape after completing physical test.
- Ken Peeters & Dries van Gestel: an outsider for podium but when a halftime Swedish orienteer comes to run, you always have to look out.

1 star - *
Some other outsiders for the podium are: Coen Claassen & Bert Mariën, Johannes Heinsoo & Benjamin Hofmans.

There probably will be 4 teams in contention for the win, but they lay really close together and then you have some outsiders who have to work really hard to get in the fight for the podium.

 

ULD Moyen stars:

3 stars - ***
- Louis Bourgeois & Oscar Bourgeois: are also still juniors. For me they are favourite for this race. Have certainly the physical demands (are one of the fastest junior runners in Belgium), question is if they have the technical capabilities but both have been shown to run good races with little preparation.
-Liam Thiels & Willem Bakelants: won the longest course last year. They decided to run the moyen distance for injury prevention. They’ll have to try to run away in the forest from the brothers because if it comes down to a sprint, they won’t have any chance.

2 stars - **
- Lucie Arno & Marine Sillien: are 2 of Belgians best female orienteers, question is if they can follow the fastest men teams in the forest? If they are alone in front, it will be hard to catch up in the technical parts.
- Ems de Smul & Olivier de Smul: winners of last year’s short distance. Know each other for quite some time. Ems is one Belgians best senior runners, and Olivier is one Belgians best master runners.

1 star - *
Also in the moyen distance, there are quite some outsiders for the podium: Christophe Amerijckx & Cedric Amerijckx, Aline Hermans & Alain Mazy, Matijs Loeckx & Frederik Loeckx, Kim Jansen & Jan Oeyen.

The fight for the podium will be quite intense and the fight for victory as well with quite some teams that can be in contention but it will be hard for them to beat the brothers Bourgeois and Liam & Willem.