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!

End of the season

Just because I haven't been writing, doesn't mean that I haven't been training or competing. For those who have been expecting something to read from this blog, I am truly sorry that I haven't cared much for updating! But here are the rest of the maps from this seasons most important races:
Rest of the JWOC:
Long distance. Emphasis on the 7/12 control, where I completley didn't understand the map, and also the 14 which was probably the result of the heat and tiredness. The rest went OK. 12th place. Relay. Again I managed to make one mistake. But all in all, a great race! Had the speed, had the durability. Leg: 3rd; total 4th.











EYOC:
Long distance. Managed to avoid any catastrophes. Some minor mistakes + one headless situation. Although feet were a little stiff, a 3rd place! I'm satisfied, but still had a desire for the gold!Relay. Speed was fine, but my digestion problems didn't really allow me to achieve full potential. Still moved fast enough! A tactical move to put me to the 2nd leg proved to work! And the prize - European Youth Champion along with Raido Mitt (first leg) and Kenny Kivikas (third leg). Both of whom made a great race!














Sprint. Though not my highest aim, I this time hoped more. Despite the fact that I almost literally shit myself during the race, I did what I could and achieved 4th place. Not bad. But I did expect a bit of a trickier course.












Other competitions worth mentioning might be O-Ringen, where I got the 2nd place in M18E.
A week before the EYOC, took place the annual Baltic Junior Cup. I won the long distance with a lead of 3 minutes! What amazes me even more is that I won the realy's first leg where I flew off the planet for at least 3 minutes!
Meanwhile I'll continue resting until the preparations for the next season begin!

JWOC 2008: sprint and middle distance

Between 30th of June and 6th of July were held the Junior World Orienteering Championships in Gothenburg, which was one of the main goals for me this year. I had been preparing for this week for quite a long time. The first time I made acquaintance to the terrains of Gothenburg was in 2004, when O-Ringen was held. So when earlier this year our national team had two training camps there, I must say I was already a bit familiar to the nature. And furthermore, I stayed in Gothenburg the last 11 days before JWOC. These days gave a great finishing touch to my trainings. Here I would also like to thank Henrik Eliasson & Tiina Laas and Mats Haldin for accommodating me for those days!

Sprint

This was a distance I was considering to skip. I wasn't sure if this would have a good influence on my durability and speed. My main goal was the long distance, so I really wanted to prepare for that. But my coaches and fellow orienteers provoked me to run, so I did.
I did as I expected, I guess. I'm not especially proud of my 29. place, but neither am I complaining. Losing 1.07 to the best time is not so bad, considering my relatively slow speed in sprint and the loss of 35 seconds to the best split on the seventh control. I must say it was hard for me physically, but the technical side was quite good, except for that seventh... So, losing a bit over half a minute simply by running is a good sign for me. I have yet to evolve my speed and durability. And remember that I have two years of JWOC left!
Splits

Middle Distance
Oh the disastrous middle distance!
It all began with the qualification. Had a good start up to the 5th control, from where on all hell broke loose. First, I proved that an uncrossable marsh was crossable, then I read myself wrong on a road and ran 90 degrees in the wrong direction! I thought that was it, just one mishap can't do no harm, can it? Right after that came a short one on a slope of a hill, where I seeked for the control 1.50 minutes longer than the best on that leg. How much worse can it get? But I still hoped that I stood a chance for the finals. But right after that mistake, running got really heavy and I felt the lack of oxygen. Fighting really hard, I then managed to make another big one with the 13th, where I lost 1.33 to the best. And right there I thought I was done. No final here. But I didn't give up fighting of course! And while I was already making another mistake with the last control (!) I overheard the speaker saying that I just might make it to the A-finals! A fast finish, and I was 17th (20 got tho the finals).
Splits
Routes

The A-final.
I hoped that I wouldn't get that tired as I did on the qual, but after a mediocre beginning, I began "dying" already after the 3rd control. After the 5th I started walking but tried to run when on level ground or when going downhill. I don't know if it was the heat (it probably was), but concentrating and focusing on the race became really hard. I started making mistakes out of tiredness and dizzyness while struggeling with the walking/running. But I kept repeating to myself: "Don't stop fighting!" and that helped a lot dispite the fact that I felt like fainting. Right before the 8th control, I got hit by some twig and was half blind from my right eye. Now that didn't help to focuse more! With the 11th I made the biggest mistake. I ran to a re-entrant-like thing, where I found no control and thought that I had gone too high, but in fact I was too low. Lost about 45 seconds there. And right after that I misread the map and started running to the 12th. After crossing the first hill, I realised what I was doing and changed direction. Saw some cliffs (not on the map) and approached those. No control again!? Continued on the same heading and eventually saw the flag. I don't understand why those cliffs weren't on the map? The rest of the course went even slower and included mistakes out of tiredness with the 12th, 14th and 16th.
I came 17th, which was worse than I expected, but it's a good place to get when walking the course! Legs that I'm pleased with: 5, 7, 13, 15. Not many of them, isn't it?
Splits
Routes

End of part 1.