De Laatste post 2025

Beste oriëntatievrienden

Het nieuwe jaar is begonnen en dit betekent helaas voor onze adminstrators van deze blog dat er minder O-evenementen zijn en dat wij zelf een examenperiode voor de boeg hebben. Maar niet getreurd, eens deze periode is gepasseerd zijn we opnieuw terug met voorbeschouwingen, analyses, opiniestukken, orientatieroddels, …

 In de tussentijd willen we natuurlijk niet dat jullie heel januari moeten wachten op nieuws, daarom leggen we de vraag bij jullie deze maand. Wat zijn jullie verwachtingen van de laatste post 2025? Welke wedstrijden moeten zeker een voorbeschouwing en analyse krijgen? Welke wedstrijden moeten we voorspellen wie er wint? Welke atleet/coach/O-liefhebber moeten we interviewen? Daarbuiten nodigen we u uit, om zelf eens een keertje bij te dragen aan De Laatste Post en een hoog- of laagwaardig artikel uit uw mouw te schudden.

Post al je voorkeuren, ideeën, … in de comments en zo gaan wij volop aan de slag om jullie wensen voor 2025 in vervulling te brengen!

PS: Tijdens de winter is het de tijd om je funderingen te leggen voor je conditie nodig tijdens de zomerwedstrijden, dus trotseer de kou, ga lopen en pluk de vruchten van je topconditie tijdens de zomer!

Reflections on the 2024 Orienteering Season: Highlights, Awards, and Unforgettable Moments

As the 2024 orienteering season has come to an end, following the last stage of the Sylvester 5 Days, it’s time to reflect on the most impressive moments and performances of the year. The 'delaatstepost' team has distributed several awards with an international perspective, celebrating the highlights of the season.

 

Belgian orienteer of the year: Yannick Michiels

We can’t go past the performances of Yannick Michiels this year. However it wasn’t his strongest year, he succeeded to keep a 3th place in the sprint World Ranking. He achieved 11^th place in both sprint and KO sprint at WOC. Additionally, Michiels secured an 8^th and 5^th place in the first 2 World Cups of the year. Michiels also played a key role in relay competitions for his Finnish team Turun Metsänkävijät, running strong first legs at TioMila (changing over in 14th) and Jukola (changing over in 3rd). Outside of orienteering, he performed well in various (inter)national road running events.

Yannick Michiels in action during WOC in Edinbourgh

Belgian junior of the year: Tille de Smul

2024 was the last junior year of Tille de Smul. She managed to get some great results at JWOC, WOC and JEC. Her season highlights include a 15th place at JWOC Long, 12th in the JWOC sprint, 2nd place at the JWOC relay changeover, and a bronze medal in the JEC sprint. She also reached the final in both the sprint and KO sprint at WOC.  With these results, de Smul has firmly established herself as a rising star to watch in the years to come. If you think it is finally done with family de Smul at JWOC, you’re wrong cause we have still the very promising Mats de Smul with 2 years left at the Junior level. He’s been unlucky with injuries this season but ready to rock the next one.

Tille de Smul on her way to an A-finale

Best Belgian orienteering performance on international level: sprint relay on WOC & JWOC

This year’s best orienteering performance was so close that two winners were chosen. The Belgian team (Tille de Smul, Jorn Kennis, Rune de Clercq, and Sarah Rooman) secured an impressive 9th place (+2’58”) in the JWOC sprint relay, marking their best-ever result. Just two weeks later, the Belgian team at WOC (Tille de Smul, Yannick Michiels, Warre de Cuyper, and Marine Sillien) finished 11th (+4’05’’) at the WOC sprint relay which was again, a record result for Belgium. These performances offer great perspective for the future of Belgian sprint orienteering.

 

Belgian rising star: Anaïs Mazy

By winning almost everything there could be won this year at national level in W-16, an incredible 17^th spot at this year EYOC long distance and a 38^th place at EYOC sprint, Anaïs Mazy can be seen as an upcoming talent who we have to look out for at EYOC and JWOC the upcoming years. At EYOC in Poland she was the best Belgian and she showed once again what the family Mazy has to offer. 

Biggest mistake of the year (on international toplevel): final women WOC KO sprint

While not the biggest mistake of the year, the women’s KO sprint final at WOC 2024 in Edinburgh will certainly be remembered by many. During the final this year, the women took some really absurd route choices. Towards control 2, the best (and only good) option was to go almost straight. However, with Megan Carter Davies leading the pack, she decided to take a route towards the south. Losing up to 15 seconds (20 seconds slower than the men’s race). The rest of the pack just followed her, so not very active orienteering for them.

Control 2 with women (red) and men (blue)

Further, control 4-5 was one of the deciding legs where you could easily win or lose (a lot of) time with a different route choice. Carter Davies took a bad route choice towards the north but the other women (leading by Alexandersson) took an even worse route choice by running around a building where you could easily passed it via the north. In the end Carter Davies had a 10 seconds advantage but eventually she finished only in 5^th.

Control 4-5:
Megan Carter Davies (yellow): 2’06”
Tove Alexandersson (red): 2’18”
Riccardo Rancan (bleu variant): 1’39”

Control 5

Alexandersson won her 21^st world championship gold. This was one of the weirdest KO races in a really long time. At least the women's race was more exciting then the men's race (not in the last minute) where they all did the same routechoice on every control.

Picture of the year

This picture got taken at the finish of JWOC middle this year. The winner Jan Strýček, literally jumped across the finish line after an amazing race. This moment perfectly encapsulated the thrill and passion of the sport.

 

Notable mentions

2024 was also the year of the Olympic marathon of Matthias Kyburz. He putted orienteering away for a part of his season and followed his Olympic dream. Some of his incredible running performances listed: Winning Swiss Championship Half Marathon (1:02:25), 7^th in Paris Marathon (2:07:44) qualifying for the Olympic Marathon and 3th best Swiss ever, 21^st at the European Championship Half Marathon and becoming 30^th at the Olympic Marathon (2:11:32).

Sadly, the orienteering community had to say farewell to Nicola Manfredi, the singer of the beloved orienteering anthem "You and Me (orienteering version)," as well as Swiss elite runner Pascal Buchs, who passed away last week.

One of the things I’ll remember for certain this year happened during the sprint relay in Italy at round 2 of this year’s World Cup. The map of the sprint relay got accidentally leaked by the organisers and was downloaded several times. I won’t point fingers to anyone but I think it’s very fair of the Polish national team to disqualify themselves. The words of Hanna Sudol (a first year Polish senior) on Strava say enough:

“I never had so little fun when “orienteering”. Felt pretty shitty to stand on the start line knowing all the shorter routechoices, together with people who were just about to run a normal race. Motivation on the ground level, not feeling like it’s fair play. I wish we hadn’t been send the link to the yesterday’s GPS, where the organisers had accidentally put the map with today’s course. Lesson learned: never look at the map before the race, even if the others also got a chance to see it. Sport doesn’t make sense without fair play. That’s wasn’t orienteering, that wasn’t what I’m training for.”

 

2024 was a year full of surprises and good races, now we are ready for 2025 with EOC in Belgium!

Sylvester stage 5: Hüni & Hus (again)

The final stage of the Sylvester 5-days took place in the Netherlands and the overall winners were determined today. As in yesterday's stage, we saw familiar faces take the victory. The course setting was demanding with some tricky areas, leading to a few mistakes once again.

In the women category Corina Hüni claimed her fourth stage win and off course the overall classment. Dominating the competition throughout the week, Hüni won four of the five stages, prooving herself as the clear favorite. Lisa Hubmann secured a second place in the overall classment with a second place today. It looked like Hubmann her direction was a bit off today losing at different controls some time. She finished 4 minutes behind Hüni. Ems de Smul finished the podium today in third. Violette Dupuy had a DNS today but she was no longer threatened for third overall.

Official results WE

Overall results WE

In the men category we saw a third stage victory for Wouter Hus, as he was already leading the classification he won the Sylvester 5-days in the end. Although Hus expressed some dissatisfaction with his overall performance across the five days, it was enough to secure the victory. The race for the remaining podium spots was intense, with every second counting. Joschi Schmid did everything he could by finishing second today with 975 points but it was only enough for 4th place overall. Sadly he was only 3 points short for the podium. However Liam Thiels wasn't happy about his race he finished third today and also in the overall classment he finished in third. Adam Zridkavesely finished just behind Thiels but with his win on stage 2, he got second in the overall classment. Rune de Clercq, who has been training intensively, finished fifth today but lacked the speed to compete for the victory.

Official results ME

Overall results ME

Congratulations to all the winners of this year’s edition, and we look forward to more exciting racing next year! Happy new year from the whole "delaatstepost" team!

Sylvester stage 4: Hüni & Hus

Stage 4 of the Sylvester 5-Days took place at De Winner, featuring a well-designed course with a variety of terrains and challenging controls. While there were a few errors in the elite categories, most were limited to less than a few minutes.

In the women's category Corina Hüni continued her dominance by winning her third stage today and guaranteeing her overall victory. Lisa Hubmann got yet another good result, finishing 2th today, 3 minutes behind. On third place we had Rahel Good but was already almost 6 minutes behind. Eva Örnhagen Jorgensen mispunched herself today and is unfortunatly out for the podium as she won't start tomorrow. But we saw some really nice routechoices through the green of her today. In the overall classment second and third place is still open for Hubmann, Good, Dupuy, Oeyen en Stevens. Tomorrow will be full speed no mistakes for these women!

Official results WE

In the men's category Wouter Hus took his second win and took a great step towards the overall podium. Second place was for Joschi Schmid today as he performed well again. Liam Thiels got yet another good result in third place but almost 4 minutes behind Hus but made a 1.5 min mistake costing him valuable points. Michael van Baelen had to step out of the competition with a back injury. We wish him a good recovery. The overall standings remain undecided as 4 men are still in contention for the victory. There are numerous possible outcomes for the order after tomorrow's race. Hus had 1 poor race so that one will cancel out normally but he need a stable race tomorrow. He's by far the most experienced runner of the 4 canditates so maybe has to use that tomorrow. Thiels has been consistent and has experience on tomorrow’s terrain, but will need to beat all three contenders, including Hus, by a significant margin. Schmid needs to have another stable fast race as he mispunched himself on day 3 but has some technical terrain that suits him well. Zridkavesely is currently leading but also need a good race. It all comes down to the final day!

Official results ME

In the M18 category, Janis Kuhn became the fourth different winner in four days. However, Belgian junior Mats de Smul has already secured the overall victory but aims to win tomorrow for some additional points.

Tomorrow everything will be decided in The Netherlands. It will be a technical stage were both the technical as the physical capabilities will be tested. Rune de Clercq will also run tomorrow so we have another candidate for the stage victory tomorrow. Stay tuned as the Sylvester 5-Days reaches its exciting conclusion!

Sylvester stage 3: Dupuy & Hus

The third stage of the sylvester 5-days stood completly in the shadow of the tragic death of Swiss elite athlete Pascal Buchs, who passed away yesterday in a skiing accident during a tour in Switzerland. The orienteering community has come to a standstill after this news.

RIP Pascal Buchs

In the women competition, Violette Dupuy delivered a surprising win. Corina Hüni had to settle for second place after a 5.5 min mistake to control 13 which was the most difficult secton of the course. Victoria Stevens finished third, just in front of Eva Örnhagen Jorgensen but they were almost 6 minutes behind. We saw more mistakes than in the previous days. The forest was partly taken down leaving a lot of fallen trees and tracker roads as an additional difficulty so the key was fighting through the green. In the overall standings, nothing changes apart from Dupuy closing in on the top 3 women. With two days remaining, the battle for the podium remains fierce, with at least five or six athletes still in contention.

Official results WE

The men's race saw Wouter Hus bounce back from a disappointing performance the previous day to claim victory, earning the full 1,000 points. Liam Thiels continued his steady form, finishing just one minute behind Hus. Yesterday’s winner, Adam Zridkavesely, secured third place. Meanwhile, Olle Bergstedt, who has performed very consistet, mispunched himself at control 21, costing him valuable points. There are still a lot of things possible in the overall classment and nothing is descided yet. We saw an absent of Michael van Baelen today, so no points for him.

Official results ME

In M18 we saw yet another winner. Mats de Smul took today's stage (with a faster pace than elite category) and is leading the overall standings. But like in the other categories, the race remains highly competitive, with several runners still in contention for the podium spots.

Tomorrow we can expect another fast race where the runners will encounter different terrains. Even the smallest mistakes will be punished. It is possible to have already the overall winner in some of the categories tomorrow.

Sylvester stage 2: Hüni again & Zridkavesely

 The second stage of the Sylvester 5-days took place on the map Sanicol on a military domain. The terrain was a mix of forest and open land. There was some low hanging fog which made the visibility in the open parts not as easy as otherwise. The course of today had another aspect, were some of the controls were misplaced. In ME, 5 controls were misplaced which caused some confusion for the runners.

In the women category we had a victory for Corina Hüni again. 2th and 3th place switched after yesterday. Eva Örnhagen Jorgensen got second place today and Lisa Hubmann settled for 3th. The other women are further down. Some of the women could follow the pace of the 3 fastest, but couldn't keep the pace in the second more physical part. We saw some small mistakes of the top 3 women but everyone could avoid big mistakes. Örnhagen jumpes over Hubmann in de classification with 1 point so the fight is on!

Official results WE

In the men category, Joshi Schmid had a clear lead over 3 minutes at control 18 but mispunched himself at the next control. So the second stage went towards Adam Zridkavesely, 2 minutes behind we have Liam Thiels. Third we have Michael Van Bealen, who kept pushing through the terrain because he had cold (I know a famous cyclist who also attacks when he has cold -> MVDP). We find Wouter Hus only in 7th place after losing 6 minutes at control 15 and some small timeloss on other controls. After the race, all the conversations were about the misplaced controls (in ME it was control 1,2,11,14 and 19). No one had a clean race. Schmid now has to run every day at his very best to safe his overall place. The overall classment keeps the same, only Schmid falls back and Van Baelen takes a couple of places. 

Misplaced control 1&2

Official results ME

Notable mention: Simon Krekels, course setter of yesterday had the fastest pace of everyone of 5'17"/km. He really liked the forest and felt super great in the terrain. Also in M18 the fight is on between some local runners and some foreign runners.

Tomorrow we go to Genk, to another green map were excuting and fighting through the forest is key to win. In 2015 we had the first stage of Sylvester 5-Days on the same map, won in ME by the German Christoph Brandt with a pace of 5'07"/km.

Sylvester stage 1: Hüni & De Cuyper

The first stage of the Sylvester 5-days took place on the map Bosbergen West. As anticipated, the orienteering presented a complex network of paths, characterized by varied terrain and numerous green areas. Quick decision-making and rapid running were essential for success today. Results

In the women category, the victory went (as expected) to Corina Hüni, in front of Lisa Hubmann and Eva Örnhagen Jorgensen. Hüni was on track for a really clear victory but lost approximately a minute with a suboptimal route choice and a mistake in the circle towards control 17. Hubmann led after control 17 but lost made 2 small misses towards control 19 and 21. Violette Dupuy was in contention for third place but lost some time in the end. The fight for the podium is open, with 7 women over 900 points. Livelox

Official results WE

In ME, the battle for the podium was also thrilling with 5 guys relatively close to each other. Also on the men side, the favorite for today was on top. Warre De Cuyper executed the course good and could avoid bigger mistakes. Joschi Schmid got second place, but De Cuyper won't run all stages, so the 1000 points will be awared to Schmid. Adam Zridkavesely finished in third place. Wouter Hus was close during the race but lost a minute towards control 20 and another 50 seconds at control 30 to finish just behind Liam Thiels on 5th spoth. The contention for the victory in the elite category is totally open but will probably go between these 4 (fast) guys. Livelox

Official results ME

I had a little chat with todays winner De Cuyper. He like the course setting a lot. It was obvious the goal of the course setter to let the runners choose between going around or going straight with sometimes only the option of going straight. So kudos to Simon Krekels. Nevertheless it was a really fast race. De Cuyper said that he didn't felt super great. He is struggling with some small illness the past 1.5 week but it didn't bothered him too much during his race. After the map exchange he got a bit tired and lost some time in sake of concentration. He tried to avoid the smaller paths at some points because they were quite muddy.

Tomorrow will be more technical but also fast terrain. Excecution will be key to win tomorrow. With the perfect race, a pace close to or even under 5'00"/km is possible. Big mistakes will lead to big points loss.

Preview Sylvester 5 Days

Next week marks the start of the Sylvester 5 Days, an annual orienteering event held in Belgium and The Netherlands between Christmas and New Year. In the article of Liam you could already read the stage previews. This year’s edition promises thrilling competition, with exciting stages and an even more exciting line-up of participants. In this overview, we’ll have an interview with the course setter of the first stage, Simon Krekels and take a closer look at the top contenders in the women and men elite category. More information on the stages can be found on the site of Orienteering Vlaanderen.

Short stage overview and their difficulties

Stage 1 – Bosbergen West:
Hilly, physical first stage with plenty of green parts. Fast legs will come in handy.

Stage 2 – Sanicol:
A demanding stage requiring both technical and physical capabilities. Mistakes are easily made in this tricky terrain.

Stage 3 – Kattevenia:
Keep your head cool in the different types of terrain and you will master the forests of Kattevenia.

Stage 4 – De Winner:
This stage will test the versatility of the orienteers, with a mix of terrains that will challenge your adaptability.

Stage 5 – Galgenberg:
Very fast and open forest but also very technical small relief to decide the ultimate victor.

I asked the course setter of day 1, Simon Krekels, last years silver medalist a couple of questions about the first day and asked for some inside information.

1. What can the runners expect from the first stage next Thursday?
The first stage of the Sylvester 5 days will be a typical Sylvester race, to set the tone for what is to come. The map is mostly green and boasts an extremely dense path network. The terrain is part of what is called "De Kempense Heuvelrug" -- literally translated: The Campine Hill Range, and consists of a range of sand-dune hills. So expect green forest, lots of paths and lots of sand!

2. Will 1 mistake be the end of your race or is there any opportunity to take some time back?
Given the dense path network, BIG mistakes seem unlikely in the elite classes; the winner will likely have shaved off the most seconds by being a master of the greens.

3. Can you give us a little tip about the course setting?
Typical Sylvester course setting: there WILL be a long leg and there WILL be a lot of path running.

4. Who will win in the elite categories?
I dare not point fingers and name names! But looking at the start list it seems there will be several contenders for the top spot. In ME the race will be quite tight, with local legend Warre De Cuyper, who will have to come out of his pipe (as they say in Flemish) to keep his challengers behind him. I have heard rumours that some other runners have set their sights specifically on this race! For WE, the start field is a bit more compact with quite some international names. We will see!

Women’s competition:

Last year it came down to a close fight between 3 women for the podium. Anna Moilanen, a Finnish runner won E1 and E5 and also the overall. Iva Kavankova, a Czech runner won the second stage but lost a bit too much time on the first and last stage. The Belgian Greet Oeyen won the 2 most technical stages E3 and E4 but lost time on the rest of the stages. The women had respectively 3961, 3917 and 3890 points so a very close battle. Will there again be a big fight for the victory this year?

Top contenders:

3 stars - ***

Corina Hüni (Switzerland)
Is a strong elite runner living in Sweden. Having multiple top 10 places in Swiss championships and some great international results she is a big contender for the victory this year. She became 4th on the world university champs middle and 6th on Swiss championship long this year. She is ranked 127th on the IOF world ranking. Best result internationally: 4th JWOC middle 2021, 24th World cup long 2023. With such a record, you’re certainly favourite for Sylvester 5 days.

Eva Örnhagen Jorgensen (Denmark)
Is a promising elite runner living in Sweden. Ran EOC this year, finishing 41th in the middle distance. Ran also multiple JWOC’s with numerous top 50 last years. She’s a really promising young runner but can she master the Belgian terrains? She wont run the last day meaning she has to perform every day at her best level!

2 stars - **

Greet Oeyen (Belgium)
Is a technical runner who still has really good physical capabilities. Won the Sylvester 5 Days several times in the past. Look out for her on stage 2 and 5! She won silver in middle and gold in night at this year’s Belgian champs.

Violette Dupuy (France)
Is a French junior runner. 3th at French championship long in W20 this year. Won 3 stages in D21 last year. 10th at JEC long and 8th at JEC middle last year in Belgium. The terrain will be totally different but has shown some potential in the past.

Lisa Hubmann (Switzerland)
Is last year Swiss junior runner. Ran JWOC in 2023 with a 25th place on the long distance. She won Sylvester D20 last year where she won all five stages. Her speed last year was often only 10 to 20”/km slower than in the elite category and should be a dark horse for a podium spot.

1 star - *

Outsider for the podium are Ems de Smul (really technical runner, doesn’t run day 3, questions about her current form but she has “de Smul blood”), Rahel Good (Swiss junior from 2007, 4th on EYOC long this year), Victoria Stevens (British runners, having some good results in international stage competitions)

 

Men’s Competition:

In the men’s race last year, Benjamin Anciaux dominated, winning four stages and the overall title. Simon Krekels won one stage and secured silver overall. The German Christoph Prunsche took third place. Krekels and Prunsche won’t compete this year. Anciaux will, but he is injured and maybe won’t run everything and not at competion speed. This year the field is stacked with a lot of possibilities for the podium.

Top Contenders:

3 stars - ***

Joschi Smid (Switserland)
Is a really strong junior runner. Some excellent results at JWOC: 7th at long distance in 2023, 12th at long distance in 2024, 13th at middle distance in 2023. Silver at relay in 2023. He has both the speed and technical capabilities to go for the podium this year.

Wouter Hus (Belgium)
Is one of Belgium’s top sprinters with some really great results at the international top level in sprint at WOC and World cup’s. But he also showed some things in the forest (namely in Belgium). Won Sylvester in 2022 (before last year winner Anciaux) and won some Belgian and Flemish titles in the last few years. When the terrain is fast, Wouter will be there but he has to keep his nerves under control in the technical parts.

2 stars - ***

Adam Zridkavesely (Czech Republic)
Is a strong junior. He ran JWOC and the 2 sprint world cups in Italy and Switzerland this year. 35th at JWOC long distance in his home country. He has the potential to challenge for a podium spot.

Liam Thiels (Belgium)
Is a senior runner, he performs best in sprint distance. 3th at Veluwe WRE event, only 3 min after winner Yannick Michiels. After a short talk with Thiels, I came with the conclusion that he would like to be the dark horse for the podium. He’ll get everyone when no one expects it. I wanted to give him 3 stars but he said I wasn’t allowed.

Michael van Baelen (Belgium)
Is a senior runner living in North-Macedonia. Ran the Mediterranean championships begin November with a 17th place at long distance and 15th place at middle distance. There are questions about his current form, but has certainly the talent to fight for the podium.

1 star - *

Jeroen Hoekx (consistent performer, 8th last year), Nico Ceunen (strong runner, with a specialty in Flanders terrain), Benjamin Anciaux (injured but mentioning worthy), Olle Bergstedt (real Swedish forest runner), Michael Imhof (Swiss runner, 19th at Austrian championship middle), Brent Vleugels (7th at Belgian Middle championship this year and often just outside top 5 on important competitions, 10th last year).

 

Other notable mentions:

On day 1 and 4 we have to look out for Warre De Cuyper, both his kind of forest terrain (however he is a sprinter by heart). Especially on day 1 were the competition centre is almost in his backyard, he is one of the favorites. On day 5 Rune de Clercq will try to take advantage of the fatigue of the other competitors in a terrain that suits him very well in The Netherlands. On the other side we have his eternal rival and your reporter Jorn Kennis who will make his forest comeback after an injury on day 2. Corneel Casier will only run day 1 and Arno Keuppens (our night specialist) will run day 1 and 5.

Most of Belgium’s juniors and young seniors will be absent, focusing on their January exams. However, the battle in the under-18 categories promises to be fierce!

The 2024 Sylvester 5 Days is shaping up to be an exciting competition, with a mix of experienced elites and rising stars. Stay tuned as the action unfolds across five challenging stages with the first stage next Thursday.

TT5: Juicy transfer nieuws

Throwback Tuesday is hier weer met deze keer een interessant artikel over de oriëntatietransfers in 2012. Het einde van het jaar komt er ook voor ons weer aan, gaan we ergens transfers zien of blijven alle atleten in hun eigen nest? Artikel is geschreven door lokale legende Toon Melis. Zeker het verhaal over "De goude draak" is het lezen waard. Geniet ervan!

Transfer-nieuws

Het jaar is een paar dagen geleden begonnen dus dat betekent dat de belangrijkste transfers zijn afgerond. Omdat wij vonden dat er dit jaar toch wel een paar intressante tussen zaten, zetten we ze even op een rijtje voor jullie!

Anna Serralonga  ??? ----> Trol
De Catalaanse furie loopt al een tijdje voor Trol (Nachtaflossing, Sylvester) maar vanaf 2013 kan ze ook lopen voor de aflossingsploeg van de trollen. Kan ze naast Desmond Franssen ook de Trol-ploeg naar ongekende hoogtes brengen? Afwachten!

Ian Geldof    Hamok ----> Asub
Ian verlaat zijn originele club Hamok voor de naburige club Asub. De reden bleef lange tijd een raadsel voor ons. Het grote geld? Plannen van studies aan het KMS? Ideale aflossingsploeg voor bk aflossing?

Een anonieme bron binnen de vriendenkring van de familie Geldof wist ons dan toch een verklaring te geven: "Verandering van spijs doet eten, je ziet dat ook bij de toppers in het wielrennen die te lang bij de zelfde ploeg blijven zitten. Als je ziet hoe goed Ullrich was in het jaar 2003 (toen hij voor Bianchi reed RED)".

Tristan Bloemen  Hamok --> C.O. Liege
Ook Europees kampioen Tristan aka "Het grote talent" verlaat zijn thuisclub hamok. Hij windt er ook geen doekjes rond, hij kiest voor het grote geld en de (naar zijn mening) betere trainingskampen van Frso. Maar zijn dat ook de echte redenen? Na een anonieme tip trokken we op onderzoek.

We trokken op onderzoek naar het Chinees restaurant "De gouden draak" in Antwerpen! Tot onze verbazing zagen we daar de recentste tussenstand van het wintercriterium op de tv! Toen we om meer uitleg vroegen bleek dat er volop wordt gegokt op "orientation" in China! Zo zou Michiels in China benaderd zijn door enkele Chinezen om ook dit jaar het wintercriterium te laten varen. We weten niet wat Michiels heeft geantwoord maar uit goede bron weten we dat de familie Michiels al een tijdje elke dag bami eet.

Toen we wat doorvroegen kwamen we te weten dat het topevenement van het jaar het bk aflossing was. De eigenaar had al enkele jaren grof geld verdiend met de 2de plaats van hamok op het bk en hij had ook dit jaar goede hoop op de 2de plaats van hamok. We kwamen verder ook te weten dat C.O. Liege een tweetal maanden geleden op 1:999 stonden (enkel borasca en epos deden beter RED.). Maar toen de transfer van Bloemen werd bekendgemaakt daalde dat naar 1:5. Een duidelijk teken dat er grof geld verdiend is aan de transfer van Bloemen.
We willen hier natuurlijk niets mee zeggen maar we vinden het toch verdacht! Verder onderzoek is nodig!

Beste wensen vor het nieuwe jaar van het ganse delaatstepost team!
Geschreven door een student die hier eigenlijk geen tijd voor heeft!

ULD and European champs Cross Country

Last weekend 2 big competitions in the national and international field took place. In Belgium we had the ULD in Brussels and in Turkey the European championship cross country took place.

At the European championship we had quite some orienteers selected themselves. In the senior men category we had Kasper Fosser (NOR) on a 27^th place, Anreas Bock Bjoernsen 36^th (DEN) and Martin Regborn 44^th (SWE) in a very strong field. There were also some juniors with high expectations in the Swiss camp with Loïc Berger (brother of…) finishing 19^th and Matthieu Bührer on a 32^th place. Another fast junior was Filip Jancik (SVK) but he only finished 93^th but it wasn't his day. Peter Molloy represented Great Brittain in U23 and finished 32^th. Finally Julia Rosen, member of well known OKS represented Sweden in U20 women finished 58^th. Furthermore we had some great results by the Belgian runners, especially in the senior classes with silver and bronze in the team competition for the men and women respectively. Results

On the ultra-long distances in Brussels we had the expected thrilling fight between the 4 best teams. In the end Arnaud Mazy & Mathis Brouwier took the win before Rune de Clerq & Corneel Casier. On a third place we had Lennert Lens & Nico Ceunen. Wouter Leeuws twisted his ankle so he had to abandon the race, Evert kept going and finished just behind the winners but was logically disqualified because he finished without a team mate. Results

Arnaud Mazy

In the moyen distance we had a win for Willem Bakelants & Liam Thiels with a clean and fast race. On second place we had the other favourites Louis & Oscar Bourgeois with a race with too much technical errors. On Strava Oscar wrote: “ca m’avait pas manqué la CO. The third place got taken by Kim Jansen & Jan Oeyen.

On the shortest distance the win got taken by 2 young promising juniors Tim Lemy Storme & Regis Vanschuytbroeck.

Liam Thiels

This weekend Thor will go (together with a lot of other Belgian orienteers) to Fontainebleau for a training camp. In Flanders we have a night competition in Dilsenerbos on Friday and a regional competition at De Beeltjens on Sunday. Next week we have another exciting competition in the Forest Cup with the 3th stage. Will Magalie Verstrepen (D21) and Jeroen Hoekx (H21) try to defend their first place our will most elite runners take rest for the Sylvester the week after?