WORLDCUP in Baden (SUI)

October 4th to 6th I was participating in o-events in Baden, Switzerland. On Friday 4th we ran mixed sprint relay in the northern part of Baden. It was great chance to train this kind of race, as it is officialy a new o-discipline and it's a part of the WOC 2014 program in Italy.

Two races of the WorldCup series were held that weekend, middle distance on Saturday and final sprint race on Sunday. Both competitions were really nice! The big part of the middle was in a technical rocky part of the map, which made the course quite challenging. The sprint that combined terrains of old town and park was super nice and also tricky with plenty of stairs and multilevel crossings that required fast and right routechoice decisions. With all the people cheering, perfect organization and great atmosphere swiss o-races were again a pleasant experience!

middle

sprint

As for my performance, unfortunately I have nothing positive to say this time.

Simply put, I screwed it up. And the gap between me and the best onces was once again really visible.

Anyway, life goes on and I'm really looking forward to pushing it harder and better in the coming training period. But firstly I'm excited to run 2nd leg at swedish 25manna team relay with SNO this weekend!

WorldCup event website
TV broadcast - middle
TV broadcast - sprint

Simone Niggli ending her pro o-career with style!

On the Axpo mixed sprint relay we tested new SportIdent Air+ (Touch-Free) punching devices that allow you to run more fluently, not really stopping by the control point. It was cool. Let's see if it will be used in the near future.

..you can see more here in Kimmo Hirvonen's headcam video from the race: