Preparing for Ånn

The stomach recovered fast after Romania and I am in the middle of a two week intensive training period before the last world cup round in Ånn. It is perfect skiing condition and nice weather in Trondheim right now, something that makes it easy to train a lot. The body responds good to the training and to day I finished the week with a small local cross-country competition, 5 km skating, Klæburennet. Allthough I felt that I have been training a lot this week, the competition went pretty well, I won the small women senior class 30 sec in front of Guro Strøm Solli. Most important however, it was great training. (Picture from Klæburennet by Øystein Kvaal Østerbø)

I have been studying some old Ånn maps this week and am really starting to look forward to the competitions. After a bad world cup start in Russia, I forgot about the world cup total and have been focusing on good individual races. This tactic seams to have worked and after two good WC rounds, in Bulgaria and Romania, I now have a chance to win the total. World cup standing: here. An extra motivation in front of the WC final. I do expect difficult races in Sweden, and as at least 4-5 women still have the chance to win the world cup, so I expect tough competition both in each individual race and for the WC total.

Link to the competitions in Ånn: Ånn WC.

Tough end of the EOC in Romania

The end of the EOC in Romania got tough for me. After a really good sprintcompetition, I first was announced to, and thought, I won the sprint distance, however two minutes later I was disqualified. I had punshed the wrong 10th control. How could this happen? I was really dissapointed in my self, however, with the weather condition and difficult track visibility I just had to accept that such things might happen. From this day, I will however always check the codes in future sprint-races. (Foto: www.sportfoto.ro)
If this was not tough enough, the day got worse. I felt a little strange already in the morning. My stomack did not feel 100% well, but I did the sprint race without any trouble. After the race I felt worse and a few hours later I was finding my self with the head down the toilet ring... I got worse in the evening and was sent to the local hospital. After some hours rest and 1 liter intravenouse at the hospital I felt better and could go home. To day, three days later I can eat and my stomack is starting to feel better. However, I think I will rest for some days now, to give my body time to fully recover.

Maps from Romania

Here are the maps from the first two competitions in the European championships; middle distance and the last loop of the long distance.

Gold medal in tough long distance

To day I won my first individual European championship title. It was a very tough long distance, mass start with lot of climb. The wind made the tracks difficult to see sometimes, especially challenging skiing in front. Like the middle distance the course was a mix between long cross-country transportation routes and challenging orienteering technically areas. I skied a lot together with Tatiana Vlasova and we kept a good pace. When we got to the 6^th last control we met the 4 women skiing in front of the other forking variant and from this control it was a rat race! I skied away from the control as number two, slowly closing the gap to Liisa Anttila in the lead, the last four controls we skied togheter, it

was challenging because of all the snow in the tracks and due to a better choice approaching the last control, or luck that it was less deep snow where I skied, I punched as number one at the last control and kept the lead into the finish. Liisa Anttila finished second, Tatiana Vlasova finished third. My club mate, Lars Hol Moholdt skied a good race to day, and was the best of the Norwegian men, as number 4. Sindre Jansson Haverstad finished as number 19 and Ove Sætra as number 26. Hans- Jørgen Kvaale broke his skied and did not finish, whilst Evind Tonna and Øyvind Watterdal chose to rest to day and come back strongly on the sprint distance.

The middle distace was also a good race and I am happy for the bronze medal. It was physically very hard with long up-hills, something that should fit me very well. However, I did a mistake to the first control, when I turned left one track to early approaching the first control, and lost control and time finding the control. The rest of the competition I did no mistakes and I won the bronze medal. 30 sec behind winner Tatiana Vlasova and 15 sec behind number two Liisa Anttila. Doing the stupid mistake to the first control really made extra motivated to win to days long distance. The middle distance was no big success for our men, the best Norwegian was Lars Hol Moholdt with a 8th place.

To morrow we will have a rest day, and after two hard races I really look forward to relax here in Miercurea Ciuc. And after an easy day I will hopefully be fit for the sprint distance saturday.

As trainer for the Norwegian juniors the last year I am also really proud of their performances in the junior world championships. Yesterday, on the midle distance, we had four girls on the podium! Barbro Kvaale won, Marie Asprusten got the silver medal, Maren Haverstad was number four and Anna Ulvensøen was number six. In the mens class, Rasmus Korvald Skaare came second and Vetle Ruud Bråten number three. To day on the long mass start Barbro Kvaale won the gold medal again, Marie Asprusten won the bronze medal, whilst Eskil Kinnberg was number four in the mens class.

European Champion

Today Marte won the long disdanse mass-start at the European Championships in Romania. It was again a hard race. Short before the finish there were still six girls fighting for the medals. But in the end Marte was strongest. (pictures from ski-o.com)

Results women:
1. 3 Marte Reenaas NOR 1:29:12
2. 4 Liisa Anttila FIN 1:29:19
3. 11 Tatiana Vlasova RUS 1:29:28
4. 8 Anastasia Kravchenko RUS 1:29:58
5. 21 Helene Soederlund SWE 1:30:31
6. 1 Natalya Tomilova RUS 1:30:40
7. 28 Helena Randakova CZE 1:32:13
8. 10 Kajsa Rickardsson SWE 1:34:02

Congratulations to the swiss men-team for the great results.
Results men:
1. 106 Staffan Tunis FIN 1:52:37
2. 101 Eduard Khrennikov RUS 1:54:33
3. 103 Andrey Grigoryev RUS 1:54:45
4. 107 Lars Moholdt NOR 1:55:16 
5. 121 Christian Spoerry SUI 1:55:54
6. 126 Janne Hakkinen FIN 1:55:55
7. 102 Andrey Lamov RUS 1:56:35
8. 104 Peter Arnesson SWE 1:56:44 
12. 120 Gion Schnyder SUI 1:59:02
21. 132 Andrin Kappenberger SUI 2:05:42

EM bronce medal

Today Marte won the bronce medal at the European Championships.

innofficial results:

1. 32 Vlasova Tatiana RUS 39:28

2. 38 Anttila Liisa FIN 39:37
3. 40 Reenaas Marte NOR 40:03
4. 35 Kravchenko Anastasia RUS 40:19
5. 39 Trapeznikova Alena RUS 41:16
6. 37 Engstroem Josefine SWE 41:42

It was avert hard race in a hilly terrain. Marte had a misstake to the først control but was satisfied with the race.

skiing in Bymarka

Yesterday I was skiing in Bymarka with the guys from MISA (http://misa.no/). Really nice conditions with powdersnow, the sun going down and good tracks.
Here som impressions:

Christian: skal vi gå før vi blir kald?

Marte at the European Championships

Right now you can follow Marte on the middle distanse at the European Championchips in Romania here

Ski-o training in Trondheim

Yesterday a skied a ski-o training in Trondheim. Thanks to Trollelg for the organisation. As you can see from the maps below, it doesn't need much work to organise a good training or a small competition.

 

Limerick greetings in Bulgaia

I got a few really good limericks over the greetings function at the world cup web-page the last days. Although I have an idea about who this talented poet(s) might be, for now, they/he/she publishes under the alias "Nordøstigården". I think the limericks are worth sharing (in norwegian):

The first one I got after the sprint where I was number 2, 5 sec behind:

Ei snuppe som oftes er blid,

Fikk orientering og ski til å gli,

Fem sekunder totalt,

Det er slett ikke galt,

Hun kan si "det driter jeg i".

The second came after the long distance, where I won:

En schpaa liten ting ifra Wing,

er blond og forstår ingenting.

Men med kapasitet i sine lunger,

blir konkurrentene unger,

Men uten kart går hun bare i ring.

Victory for Wing OK in World Cup mix sprint-relay

To day was a great Norwegian day in Bulgaria, with two teams at the podium. Lars and I won the first mix sprint relay in the ski-orienteering world cup ever. As we both represent Wing OK, it is a victory both for Norway and Wing OK. (The picture is taken at the world champs in Rusutsu, Japan, where we learned origami..)

Both Lars and me did good races to day and are obviously happy to win, although we expected harder competition from some of the russian teams we think we did a good performance.

Our second team, Norway II with Hans-Jørgen and Barbro Kvåle, finished as number three, an impressive result for the young team. Øyvind Watterdal and Maren Haverstad also did a good race and finished 13th.

To morrow we will travel by buss to Mircurea Ciuc in Romania and the european championships and junior world championships, where we will meet the rest of the Norwegian senior and junior team. It will probably be a long day in the buss, 530 km in snowy weather and various street quality takes a while.

Three times top three

For the third time this world cup round, I finished in top three, to day with a third place. My race was OK. I did a few bad route choices and lost time, but my major mistake was orienteering to the 7th control, the highest in the terrain, on the way to number 11. I lost 1 minute on this mistake and probably also the victory. Alena Trapeznikova won, 2 sec in front of Natalya Tomilova and 32 sec in front of me.

Results can be found here: results.

All in all the individual competitions here in Bulgaria have been a really positive experience for me. After a bad start in Russia it feels good to do some good international races. It has been tough races, with steep up-hills and challenging down-hills as well as some demanding route choices. We have experienced a few skiing accidents among the skiers the last days, and I have to admit that I had this in the back of my head in some of the down-hills to day. Liisa Anttila crashed bad in one of the down-hills to day and I hope she will recover fast.

To morrow we will ski mixed sprint relay. I will ski with Lars Moholdt and we are motivated to do a good relay.

World cup victory!

To day I skied into my first world cup victory. It was a hard long distance, but I felt strong to day and fought all the way. I am satisfied both physical and o-technically, and think I did a really good competition. To cross the finish line as first woman was a fantastic feeling. Liisa Anttila came second, Natalia Tomilova third.

Lars Moholdt did a good race again, and followed up his 4th place from yesterday, with a fifth place to day, as the best Norwegian in the mens class.

See map from my last round in the article underneath.

Results can be found here: results.

Maps from Bulgaria

First worldcup victory

Today Marte won her first worldcup race. A long distance mass-start in Gabrovo, Bulgaria.

More informations later.

Finally!

Finally I did a really good race also in the world cup this winter. In to days Sprint competition I finished as number two, 6 sec behind Natalia Tomilova.

I did a good race, only one mistake towards the first control where I stopped at the mens control 60 away from my own, I lost speed and valuable seconds. All in all, I am however very satisfied with my race. (Picture taken by Sindre Haverstad at the last WC round in Bulgaria)

Results can be found here: results.

The maps will be published here: maps