World Orienteering Championships 2012, Lausanne

Following WUOC, I travelled to Switzerland to compete in my first-ever World Orienteering Championships, in Lausanne.  After four years of competing at JWOC it was interesting to see the height of the difference and the races get even tighter.  I raced the sprint distance qualification race at the Lausanne University.  Navigationally I think I made the best route choices and I ran my hardest.  Finding that I was first started added to the nerves the night before but once I got warmed up it didn’t faze me, I just confidently ran my own race.  That is the luck of the draw in sport. With three starting at once in the heats there were still stages on the roads were there were others to chase down if any extra motivation was needed.  Unfortunately the course was not as technical as we had expected so most runners found it navigationally problem-free. Despite a perfect run by the time everyone had finished my time had slipped down to 21^st with the top 15 qualifying.  Lizzie, Greta. Ross and Tim did make it in to the final for NZ.

The sprint final was tricky with several route choices where it paid to stop and plan a route- Simone did. The crowds were huge. I ran this course on Thursday and enjoyed it in an easy 20mins with extra traffic to dodge. It would have been super to race if in top condition.  Lizzie achieved a PB of 9^th.  The rest of the Championships and the Swiss 5 day event for public runners was organised on the forests.  Generally the forests here were lush green, with dense undergrowth on broad hill sides with tricky track networks.  The terrain is deceptively simple.  It is important to maintain focus and take the right track intersections and cut the corners where suitable.  The road to the World Orienteering Championships this year has been challenging with injury so I was glad to be able to compete.  The experiences this year and at WOC have taught me so much that will be very helpful in future races.