The preparations had gone well and I was ready for battle. Right before the JWOC-week, I somehow must have caught cold (!), as I had a running nose and my voice was lossy sometimes. But since there were no other symptoms, I tried to ignore the situation as much as I could and just think that this must mean I'm in good shape. The sprint, as always, worked as a good startup for the next starts. Only with a few small misses, the loss to the winner was too much. I was expecting about a 10th to 13th place, but as it turned out, I was slower than I should have been. I wasn't worried though, since I'm accustomed to a difficult day before my main event.
Results, map.
I felt great during the warmup for the Long distance. Everything was according to plan. The very beginning of the course suited me well: technical controls in sand dunes, lots of changes in direction and speed, and lastly - running in forest, instead of paths or roads. On the long leg I could feel that this was not my day. The feet were heavy and it wasn't possible to run as fast as needed. I tried to push hard, but it was no use. On the butterfly, I met Johan Runesson and then I saw how I should be moving. Nevertheless, I ran as fast as I could and give my best on that day. To the 15th control I should have gone from above and because of that I lost some time. In the control itself, I saw Pavel Kubat, whom I ran side-to-side until the 20-21 control. We chose different routes and I just died on the ascent. It felt as if I hadn't done any trainings for steep hills. Just so hopeless. After the 21st control I occasionally saw Pavel again, until the 25th, where I got hit in the eye with a spruce branch and had difficulties seeing. On the last loop I made one bad choice - I went totally around the green area. When I left the previous control, I saw how bad the open are could be and decided to run around, which was a mistake. In rough conclusion - I lost about 2-3 minutes because of mistakes and bad routes, the rest by slow running. Clearly not my day. In the end, I felt that the course lacked some technical challanges. There were many different routechoices, but not enough detailed mapreading, which also meant that there was a lot of running on paths. But that's how the terrain was and the best won. My race was worth an 8th place.
The middle distance qualification went just swell. I ran cautiously and a place in the final was secured. Since the running shape was not of the best, I started with the thought of "all or nothing". The first 5 controls went OK, but then I made a fatal mistake with the 6th. It was very hard to connect the map with the terrain, but I thought I had it under control. I ran past two depressions, which seemed right. When I arrived in the presumed control, there was no flag. I had ran too much to the left, but I didn't understand that then. I went further to determine my location and attack the control again. Didn't quite work out again. Finally got it at the same time with Jan Petrzela. After the open area, the course was rather simple and the main attention was on fast legs. I managed to lose some more time with the 9th control. I still don't understand why. The rest of the distance went ok, no technical difficulties. I got the 20th place, which is worse than on the last two years - both 17th. Although those races went worse, I had a better position. I guess this shows that this year's course was simpler and therefore, the results tighter.
Results, map.
On the burning hot relay day, our teams' hopes were up and my teammates were ready to fight for medals. Unfortunately Raido had a really bad day and lost an enormous amount of time already in the first part of the course. The medal hopes were gone. I still tried to give my best. The feeling wasn't all that bad. When it wasn't running straight up steep hills, I was moving quite well. The course was simple, but yet very difficult. It seemed as if there was "physical forking" applied. A rather good race for me. With a 5th time on my leg, I climbed from 26th to 17th place. Kenny on the last leg, kept the position.
I can say that this JWOC turned out as a disappointment to me. I had good races on venues, I don't really prepare for and bad races on my main distances. Now looking forward to the WUOC in Borlänge.
