Hendrickx and Ward win Sylvester 2013

Tomas Hendrickx of Belgium stormed to victory during sylvester 5-days by winning 4 stages. Christoph Brandt (GER) carried on a strong performance and took the 2nd place in his first Sylvester participation ever. In women's class Claire Ward (GBR) retained the leader bib after finishing 2nd in the last stage.

Yannick Michiels (coursesetter) prepared a course with some long legs and a lot of controls in the technical area full of trenches. He didn't expect anyone to run sub 5'00/km today. But Tomas Hendrickx succeeded to run faster than the expected winning time. Despite some tiredness (after 5 days orienteering) and a big mistake at the 3rd control (because of his tiredness), he won again. Belgian champion Hendrickx edged his opponent Christoph Brandt by just 1 minute to win todays 8.9km race. Obviously Brandt also took the 2nd spot in the overall ranking. 

Tomas Hendrickx in action during todays race in Leopoldsburg

Desmond Franssen recorded his first ever Sylvesterpodium result (in elite class) in third place, by also finishing in 3rd position today. Francois Joly made 2 big mistakes (at controls 1 and 17). This made him finish 6th today and 4th in the overall ranking. The Belgian hamok teammates Thomas van der Kleij and Benjamin Anciaux were 4th and 5th in Leopoldsburg.

Desmond Franssen crossing the open area during the first long leg (towards control 5)

Thomas van der Kleij punching control 21

In women's class Iliana Ilieva (Halden Sk) showed that her shape is improving, by winning the last stage. She was 45 seconds faster than Claire Ward (who secured her overall victory by this performance). Sophie Tritschler suffered from tiredness and the tough terrain during the last stage. She made too many mistakes today and finished in 3rd spot. In the overall ranking she became 2nd for the 2nd year in row. Maybe she'll come back for the victory in december 2014?

Simon Krekels next to Iliana Ilieva

Sophie Tritschler

To my opinion we could enjoy a nice sylvester 5-days event in 2013. The clubs offered quality maps and the organisation from the competitions was good every single day. The Gps tracking was a nice innovation and will hopefully be used more often in the future. Also in 2014 we can expect some demanding maps and terrains (calender 2014) at the Sylvester 5-days. The Flemish federation is even thinking about organising 2 WRE's in 2014. Hopefully we can expect a nice startfield again.

Sylvester 2013 podium: Christoph Brandt - Sophie Tritschler - Tomas Hendrickx - Claire Ward - Iliana Ilieva - Desmond Franssen

For those athletes who can't wait untill next year to enjoy the Belgian terrain again, there are some other opportunities. In 2014 Flanders will organise the Junior European Cup (JEC), including spectatorsraces. This event will take place in october on 3 of the best maps you can find here.
In august the Flanders 3-days will take place in Genk. This terrain is similar to the WRE in Vierveld, including a terril. The last (but first on the calender) opportunity is the 3-days of Belgium in the beginning of june. This event will take place in the south of Belgium and will be more hilly than you could experience the previous days.

Results
Splits
Map (H21E - Desmond Franssen)
Overall ranking
Photos Sylvester 2013 stage 5