Last National Event

Miek Fabré and Jeroen Hoekx won the 21E classes of the last national event in Leopoldsburg/Hechtel. This was also the interclub championship, which was won by KOL.

Junior Fabré was 1 minute faster than Greet Oeyen. She won her second national event of this year during the last few controls and showed that she will be a very serious contestant next year. 3 minutes behind on Oeyen, Aline Hermans took the third place.

Hoekx also scored his second national event victory today, admittedly with most top runners absent despite the beautiful terrain. Second place Jeroen van der Kleij got caught (catched!) up by Hoekx around half course (control 16) and neither runner was able to shake off the other one, despite quite a few different route choices all along. Together the teammates managed to avoid mistakes while keeping high speed.

The splittimes are not quite right though, as the gap between the two runners was 2 seconds larger in real life. Joost Talloen finished in third place, 2 minutes behind on van der Kleij. With 6 minutes of mistakes, he was quite disappointed, despite his strong running performance.

KOL was once again the best club overall in the interclub championship (158 points), leading by a huge 27 points margin to Omega, the winner of two years ago. Hamok took the third place, 7 points after Omega. The other clubs are far behind. We hope the concept of the Interclub championship will change the next years.

• Results
• Splits
• Interclub
• Map (North) (South) with routechoices

Update:

The current interclub system will be the same the next years, but there will be a club relay, with teams of 6 runners, which is part of the official ABSO-BVOS calendar. From the new competition rules:

5.1 Le relais des clubs

5.1.1 Cette compétition se déroule sous la forme d’un relais d’équipes composées de 6 personnes. Le départ de masse est à 9h30. Chaque club peut aligner plusieurs équipes.

5.1.2 Chaque équipe sera composée de :

• 6 personnes affiliées au même club
  
• au moins deux dames
• au moins une personne des catégories H ou D-10/-12/-14/-16
• au moins deux personnes des catégories H ou D40 ou plus (dont une au moins de catégorie H/D50 ou plus)

5.1.3 Les circuits suivants sont courus chronologiquement :

1. 5 km 35 min (temps du vainqueur)
2. 7 km 45 min
3. 3 km 25 min
4. 5 km 35 min
5. 3 km 25 min
6. 7 km 45 min

5.3.4. Les parcours sont conçus suivante le principe « VANNAS ». Les circuits sont pré-imprimés par l’organisateur sur les cartes.

5.3.5. Le nombre d’équipes doit être communiqué à l’organisateur au moins 7 jours à l’avance suivant les modalités fixées par ce dernier. La composition exacte (noms) doit être communiquée à l’organisateur au plus tard la veille de la compétition à 12h. Les ultimes modifications à la composition des équipes (à la suite de blessures, accidents, maladies, …) doivent être communiquées au plus tard 15 minutes avant le départ de masse. Tout changement à la composition de l’équipe après ce délai (15 minutes avant le départ de masse) conduit au déclassement de l’équipe.

HOC wins Belgian Relay Championship

HOC, with Fabien Pasquasy and the two Frenchmen Vincent Coupat and Johann Tinchant was the fastest club today in Marche. They were about 10 minutes faster than Hamok with Dries and Thomas van der Kleij and Jeroen Hoekx, followed at another 10 minutes by last year’s winner KOL, now with a completely new team: Dries Heuninckx, Bruno De Lat and Tom Mariën.

HOC’s starter Coupat took the lead from hamok at the second control and finished with an advantage of almost 4 minutes, while hamok had to gain more places in the last part, arriving only fifth at the spectator control, but finishing in second place, half a minute in front of Christophe Bernard of Asub. Nearby, there was also Noël Nijsten for Borasca and Dries Heuninckx for KOL. Other favourites, like Trol, Omega and NSV Amel already lost some time during the first leg.

Hamok’s second runner Dries van der Kleij was not able to close the gap to HOC’s Johann Tinchant, but still managed a clean run, losing three minutes, but more importantly, increasing the lead to the third club by quite a few minutes. KOL arrived in third place, with Bruno De Lat, always good in Relays. Asub got lost somewhere, but the others were able to keep up the fight for the third place.

Fabien Pasquasy ran the third leg for HOC. With such a comfortable advantage, it was almost impossible that he would not win the championship. Hamok’s runner was Thomas van der Kleij, who did another steady race and secured the second place, just like last year. While there was not much exciting about the first two places, the fight for the third place was more interesting: Omega’s Bart Delobel, Borasca’s Jan Oeyen, Robert Theiss for NSV Amel and Tom Mariën for KOL were close together, but in the end, KOL was the clear number three, securing their position during the last 3 controls.

The women’s class was more exciting. The clear favourites in this class were Omega with Miek Fabré, Els Talloen and Elisabeth Henkes, and CO Liège with Aline Hermans and Muriël and Severine Vandermeulen. Fabré was by far the fastest first leg runner and she gave Talloen, perhaps Omega’s weakest link, a comfortable lead, which she was not able to hold, however.

Ardoc, with Katharina Henkes and Veronique Bastin was the first team to start the third leg, but Anne Werding was not able to match the speed of the competition, most notably Aline Hermans and Elisabeth Henkes. At the spectator control, about halfway, Hermans was leading, but the young Henkes was less than a minute behind. In a breathtaking sprint, it was eventually Henkes who crossed the finish line first. The third place was for Asub, but at quite a distance.

• Results
• Map
• Photos

Poll Relay Champs 2008

Can we have your votes for the following POLL...

Which club will win Belgian championship orienteering Relay?
	KOL
	TROL
	BORASCA
	HAMOK
	OMEGA
	ASUB
	Pegase
	HOC
	CO Liege
	Ardoc
	Olve
	Balise 10
	Les Raptors
	COMB
	BABA
	Hermathenae
	Altair
	CLO Chiny
	NSV Amel
pollcode.com free polls

Sunday might be the most important day for Belgian orienteering clubs. Not only will we watch the results of the Open category but also an overall medal count will be made for sure.

In men open class the relay competition has been dominated by KOL for a few years now but from the team of last year not one runner is participating. Since this year also foreign runners can participate in the relay if they are member of the club since 1st of January of 2008. Fabien’s team with the 2 French runners Coupat and Tinchant is therefore a new team that will battle for victory.

Trol with 4 and Hamok with 5 runners in the top 20 of the BEL-ranking are 2 clubs that should have a nice team. Trol however is missing Desmond Franssen and the first team will be Ken Peeters, Tomas Henriksson and Winston Franssen. Hamok has a bit of a luxury problem, 6 runners are in rather good shape. The 3 brothers van der Kleij, Jeroen Hoekx, Gunther Deferme and Benjamin Anciaux all proved their shape the last few weeks. If the relay competition would be with 5 or more runners I’m sure Hamok would be the favourite.
Omega has a great team with junior top talent Wouter Leeuws, Joost Talloen and Bart Delobel (best Flemish runner). Borasca will miss Sam Deferm, and the team will probably be Jan Oeyen, Noel Nijsten and Nico Schrans. Other FRSO-clubs seem not to have a team that can be on the podium… Maybe NSV Amel can surprise with Thorsten Langer, Robert Theiss and Guido Lenges.

In womens class I would say that Omega, Hamok and CO Liège will divide the medals. But the winner of last year (CO Liège) is the favourite since Hamok will have to miss Greet Oeyen and Elien Melis and Omega misses Veerle Tulleneers and Kim Geypen.

The competition is on the very nice military terrains around Marche en famenne. It will be a challenge for the top orienteers to compete here at the high speed of a relay competition.

Results 2007
Related map (but now the competition takes place in a new zone)
Article about a relay in Marche

Another victory for Pasquasy and Hermans

In the Nertherlands (close to the border with Belgium), the Belgian national championship middle distance took place. In the mens class Fabien Pasquasy was outstanding. With an incredible strong performance, he beat Bart Delobel and Nicolas Sillien. In the womens class the victory was for Aline Hermans. She was faster than Greet Oeyen and Saartje Sallaerts. The results, splittimes, map and photos are visible below.



Nederlands:
Vorige week op Waals grondgebied waren het nog de Vlamingen die lijsten aanvoerden. Vandaag (op Nederlands grondgebied maar eerder Vlaams terrein) waren het dan weer twee walen die met de bloemen aan de haal gingen.

Organisator Sam Deferm koos ervoor het secretariaat centraal op de kaart te lokaliseren. Dit leidde tot een fikse wandeling richting cc. Positief was dat er meteen gestart kon worden in de interessantere zones van de kaart.
De baanlegging was (net zoals bk lang 2007) uitstekend. Het was een zware en veeleisende omloop waarbij kracht en techniek noodzakelijk waren.

Fabien legde de 7320m in de korste tijd af. Gevolg hiervan is dat hij een nieuwe belgische titel op zijn palmares mag schrijven. Fabien liep nagenoeg foutloos en was dus zichtbaar tevreden.
Ook omegaan Bart Delobel was, op enkele kleine foutjes na, opegetogen over zijn trip door het bos. Hij legde bestek op een tweede plaats.
De laatste plaats op het podium was voor Nicolas Sillien. Voor Nicolas was het zijn tweede podium op twee weken. (Vraag is of hij er vandaag met een andere starttijd ook had gestaan? Maar uiteraard kan hij hier zelf niets aan doen, en is dit een moeilijk te vermijden discussiepunt.).

Bij de dames wist Aline Hermans ditmaal wel te zegevieren. Nadat ze vorige week enkele seconden te kort kwam had ze vandaag een bonus van 6 minuten op haar naaste achtervolgster. Dit was hamoks speerpunt Greet Oeyen. De derde stek ging naar de eerstejaars-seniore Saartje Sallaerts.

Opmerkelijk was dat bij de dames de winnares van vorige week niet startte. Miek verkoos om bij de dames juniores aan te treden. Het was dan ook verrassend dat niet Miek maar Elisabeth Henkes won bij de dames juniores.
Bij de heren junioren liet Wouter Leeuws niet veel heel van de concurrentie. Na een voortreffelijke jec toont hij nog maar eens zijn uitstekende OL-vaardigheden.

- RESULTS
- SPLITS
- MAP (HE)
- PHOTOS

Fabré and van der Kleij win the Long Distance

Thomas van der Kleij (hamok) and Miek Fabré (omega) were the best runners in the Belgian Long Distance championship on the map Hunnert in Recht. In these fast forests, the youngsters were ready to surprise.

VDK, 23, won ahead of Nicolas Sillien (Pégase) and the big favourite according to our poll, Fabien Pasquasy (HOC). With his time of 1:29:58, he was 2 seconds faster than the expected winning time and had a 2 minute gap to the follow-up runners. His summer trainings were widely reported in the Belgian Orienteering media: with good results in Sweden and Norway, as well as winning the Flanders 3 days, it was clear that VDK was in great shape. Pasquasy trained in Canada the last weeks, avoiding bears and was suffering from jet-lag today, making two parallel mistakes.

Fabré (20 so still a junior) was just 7 seconds faster than Aline Hermans (CO Liège). She caught up with Greet Oeyen (hamok) early on in the race and managed to get away on one of the many climbs in the race. According to herself, the key to success was that she felt absolutely no pressure for a good result (although she was the favourite according to the DLP-poll). Her entourage, however, claimed that their common training program helped her a lot. Sofie Herremans (hamok, interview) finished in third place and commented that she still lacked the speed for a really good result here.

We will try to add a map of the HE course with route choices as soon as the festvities in Lommel are finished. Meanwhile, we do have photos.

• Results
• Splits
• Photos
• Map (HE)

Sofie Herremans relaxed for Belgian Champs

Sofie Herremans has always been one of the biggest orienteering talents of Belgium. Last couple of years she suffered from injuries. Mainly her knees and hips were suffering from the hard trainings. This winter she started working on her comeback. Still living in New Zealand summer time helped motivating her. But it takes more than a few weeks for a real comeback. the biggest progress she made this summer. Doing o-ringen and some other nice competitions made her stronger and faster. Also the training facilities in Leuven, with all the SLOKtrainings helped in the progress.

She's not at the speed of 10 years ago yet but getting closer every week.
At the 3-days of flanders she was equal to Greet Oeyen (best belgian girl for years now) so it's no surprise that the poll indicates her also as one of the 3 favorites.

Now what is she doing different than last years?
Mainly staying free of injuries she says. Acting very fast when something feels not right. Like today (05/09)... I felt a pain in my back when i woke up. The same day I went to the physiotherapist. Some stresses were released around the 5th thoracic bone (somewhere between the shoulder blades). Now I'm free of pain and running at a very high speed. "we vliegen nog steeds".

What's your goal for sunday?
"I want to be on the podium", with anything else i'm not satisfied.

What do you think about the poll?
I was surprised to see so many votes for me, but also the fact that Miek is getting so many votes surprises me. She just finished her exams at uni... not the best preparation I think...

"Let's just see what happens sunday, hopefully you come back to me for an interview with the winner."

Belgian Championship Long Distance Preview.

This sunday Belgian championship Long Distance will take place in Hunnert.

The first route choice is always the one to the competition. Sunday it will be a difficult one. Because of the Formule 1 grand prix it's recommended to take E25 - exit Baraque Fraiture.

Only one clear favorite for this years competition in men's Elite class and that's Fabien Pasquasy.
He proved his shape and rumours about a training camp, or was it a honeymoon trip, in Canada were spread last week. Delaatstepost wants to congratulate him with his marriage.

Who will be Belgian Champion Long Distance 2008 ?
	Franssen Desmond
	Bernard Christophe
	Hoekx Jeroen
	Peeters Ken
	Sillien Nicolas
	van der Kleij Jeroen
	van der Kleij Thomas
	Bastin Michel
	Pasquasy Fabien
	Delobel Bart
pollcode.com free polls

In women's class we can expect an interesting fight. Not only between Greet Oeyen, Veronique Bastin and Aline Hermans... but also Sofie Herremans (working at a comeback) and Miek Fabré (Junior talent).

Who will be Belgian Champion Long Distance 2008 ?
	Bolsens vanessa
	Vandermeulen Severine
	Sallaerts Saartje
	Herremans Sofie
	Mulpas Vinciane
	Oeyen Greet
	Fabre Miek
	Bastin Veronique
	Tulleneers Veerle
	Hermans Aline
pollcode.com free polls

We can expect some interesting route choices tracked by the experienced Albin Genten.

Startlist (sorted by club), by category.

JEC Relay - Results

Today the participants at the Junior European cup run their last race: the relay. In the womens class the Cezch Republic team was outstanding. They won with a big margin (more than 8 minutes) ahead of France and Russia.
In the mens class the finish was much closer. Austria surprisingly won the relay, 20 seconds ahead of Germany. Czech Republic became 3th.

Belgium became 5th in the mens class. Wouter Leeuws was the 3th leg-runner and performed very strong. He did the 4th best time, only Florian Howald, Bjarne Friedrichs and Milos Nykodym run faster. Belgium2 had a better ranking than Belgium1 after 2 legs, but became 13th in the overall ranking.
The Belgian girls became 7th.

Results

JEC Long distance - Results and map

Yesterday it was the 2nd day at the junior European Cup in Arlon: the longdistance took place. Once again France (Thibaut Poupard) took a gold medal. But this time Suisse (Sophie Tritschler and Florian Howald) won twice. Also the juniors from Czech Republic run strong during a tough race in sunny Belgium, they took 6 medals in total.

D-18 , 6400 m , 100 m
1. TIHONOVA Anastasiya RUS 0:48:03 7'30"
2. NOVOTNA Tereza CZE 0:49:04 7'39"
3. MASTEROVA Maria RUS 0:49:38 7'45"

D-20 , 7300 m , 110 m
1. TRITSCHLER Sophie SUI 0:52:42 7'13"
2. PETRZELOVA Tereza CZE 0:54:11 7'25"
3. MADLOVA Vera CZE 0:55:34 7'36"

H-18 , 9900 m , 165 m
1. HOWALD Florian SUI 0:59:32 6'00"
2. NOZKA Radek CZE 1:01:27 6'12"
3. KANTOR Ondrej CZE 1:01:37 6'13"

H-20 , 10800 m , 160 m
1. POUPARD Thibaut FRA 1:05:38 6'04"
2. KLUSACEK Matej CZE 1:06:53 6'11"
3. LEPOUTRE Benjamin FRA 1:09:34 6'26"

Map part2 'Lagland' (click on the map to enlarge)

Public race:
Thomas van der Kleij won his second race in a row. In the class H21E, he was more than 8 minutes faster than Iwan Vis. David Lemaire became 3th.
Aline Hermans took the victory in D21E and Vinciane Mulpas became 2nd.

Results JEC
Splittimes JEC
Map part1 (Public race H21Elite)
Map part2 (Public race H21Elite)
Photos
Results Public race
Splittimes Public race