Last seasons biggest mistakes

As physical preparations for the new season began already some time ago, it's time to look back at last seasons biggest and most idiotic mistakes.

Picture: Timo and Tõnis examining maps.

First I browsed through the maps and selected a bunch that contained a significant mistake. I came up with 15 mistakes on 11 races, so that some of the mistakes have occurred on the same course. After calculating the loss, I ranked them according to the loss in percentage.

The numbers indicate:
"best split"; "my split"; "loss in time"; "percentage compared to best split".
And here they are, counting backwards from #12 to #1:

Mistake #12: O-Ringen, Sweden. Stage 5, control 3.
9:20 10:29 +1:09 112 %
Good leg until after the last big swamp.
Position: 12 -> 14.

Mistake #11: Youth Jukola, Finland. 7th leg, control 5.
2:28 3:03 +0:35 124 %
It was hard to see the paths on the bare rock and I thought I was somewhere I really wasn't.

Mistake #10: JWOC, Sweden. Long distance, control 7/12.
9:51 12:30 +2:39 127 %
Two mistakes in one control, how about that? Probably my biggest weakness - approaching the control from above. I concentrated extra when closing in, but that didn't help. I came very close to the flag, but didn't see it. Finally I got it and tried to remember the place as I would have to take that control again after the loop. When back again, I was master of the situation, or not. This time even lost more than before.
Position: 1 -> 5.

Mistake #9: O-Ringen, Sweden. Stage 3, control 4.
7:36 11:44 +4:08 154 %
My biggest weakness again, so I was extra careful. All went perfect, I even ended up in my control. But then, I checked the wrong control description and I couldn't imagine on which side of my control I was, because I was certain in my location (which turned out to be correct afterall). This mistake is from a bit of another category, which includes mistakes that weren't caused by bad map reading.
Position: 3 -> 22.

Mistake #8: O-Ringen, Sweden. Stage 2, controls 4 & 5.
4:10 6:25 +2:15 154 %
I count this mistake as one, as they are consecutive and possibly linked. It was unusual for me to get distracted by another control. So I wondered around in the fourth for some time. Got it, ok, not that much time lost, nothing that bad. Everything under control again until I crossed the marsh. I ran downhill, but didn't notice that I had to climb up some meters again before I got to the lower marsh. More time lost there.
Position: 8 -> 47.

Mistake #7: Baltic Junior Cup, Sweden. Relay, control 4.
3:28 5:29 +2:01 158 %
Didn't see the highest point in the green which I wanted to use for navigating. The knoll was hard to see because of the 2,5m contour line.
Position: 1 -> 10.

Mistake #6: eGames, Finland. Control 11.
2:12 ~3:40 +1:28 167 %
Used the big road as a catching feature and beside it was a power line (for illuminating) and I immediately thought myself to be a bit to the left of the purple line. Looking straight ahead, the huge boulder was there too, unfortunately not the right one. After that it was one bafflement after another.
Position: 1 -> 1.

Mistake #5: Ilves 3, Estonia. Stage 1, control 6.
2:31 5:17 +2:46 210 %
Although being suspicious of my bearing all the way from the beginning, I thought myself to be heading in the correct direction. Found myself in somewhat of a parallel situation, although some things didn't add up.
Position: 1 -> 7.

Mistake #4: O-Ringen, Sweden. Stage 4, controls 10 & 12.
2:16 4:57 +2:41 218 %
As I knew I was bad in picking controls when descending, I approached carefully. Still missed two out of three.
Position: 4 -> 31.

Mistake #3: Baltic Championships, Lithuania. Long distance, control 3.
~2:45 7:19 ~+4:34 255 %
The terrain just didn't match with the map! Why? Well, maybe because I was in the wrong area to start with.
Position: not sure, but possibly 2 -> 5.

Mistake #2: JWOC, Sweden. Middle distance qual, control 7.
1:09 2:59 +1:50 259 %
I just didn't dare go down there.
Position: 4 -> 13.

Mistake #1: Baltic Championships, Lithuania. Long distance, control 18.
~2:19 8:29 ~+6:10 366 %
One can never be perfect in orienteering!
Additional graph of Baltic championships (also relates to mistake #3).
Position: 3 -> 4.

The sum of these twelve mistakes is 30 minutes!
Now officially, my worst race last season was definitely the Baltic Championships Long distance. O-Ringen was a phenomenon - it was either a big mistake or no mistake at all. If the whole races would have been bad, I wouldn't have gotten the 2nd place overall.

I'll make my own conclusions and hope to learn from these mistakes, I hope everyone will. They say that smart people learn from their own mistakes, but clever people learn from other peoples' mistakes. I did these mistakes so that you won't have to!