Magne Dæhli and Anne Margrethe Hausken Nordberg sprinted best for victories during the Norwegian national team’s open investigation race for the WOC relay Tuesday. Approaching WOC 2019 the two have fairly different planning schedules.
Tuesday’s race consisted of two rounds with a winning time of approximately 16-18 minutes. The contestants started in small packs of runners with some interval between the pools. Among the ladies Hausken started last on the first round and first on the second – both times to return first.
Dæhli started in the last pool together with Olav Lundanes on the first round and returned last as Audun Heimdal and Jon Aukrust Osmoen managed to maintain their gap. On the second round the expert finisher went out with a thirty second gap to Lundanes and 60 seconds to the rest of the chasers but wasn’t caught.
A step back
-You enjoy being the first to finish?
-It helps to start first, then you should finish first, so I’m satisfied with that bit. With only a 30 seconds margin it so easily happens that someone gets sight of your back and eventually catches it, and it definitely felt like Olav at times came closer than the gap we started with.
-From what we could observe on the live tracking, it seemed like a solid race?
-Maybe, maybe not. I missed the first control on round 1, an annoying start. If I hadn’t been allowed to go first on round 2, I’m not sure that I would have caught up. It kind of resembles last WOC, where I make things so much more difficult by early mistakes, Dæhli comments.
Stronger
He has still received good answers from this training camp, that started last Thursday in the WOC county of Østfold.
-My weak point as an orienteer is my course entrances, and to start good enough. On the last two sessions this part actually worked out well. Today I felt a bit tired an didn’t manage to work hard enough in the beginning. I feel like this year I am in a much better state technically and mentally, so now it’s just to make some last adjustments.
Skips O-Ringen
-What does your competition plan look like ahead of WOC?
-I’m not doing O-Festivalen, as the terrain this year is not WOC relevant. Instead I’ll do the WOC test races next week. I thought about doing a couple of races at O-Ringen (Last year’s winner), but I’m not going. Everything is so big there that you’ll risk wasting energy, and when you’re there it’s hard to resist the temptation of running all days. Not a lot of competitions this summer, so I reach for some really good sessions instead.
Hausken is still eager to remind us that she will need to do well at the test races in Halden on July 5th/7th to earn a place in the Norwegian squad for WOC 2019.
Family trip to O-Ringen
Anne Margrethe Hausken Nordberg is on the other hand ready for O-Ringen.
-O-Ringen is always good for me. I’ve yet to find a better place to prepare technically and mentally for WOC, and I get to test myself against Tove Alexandersson and the other good runners.
-And you will as usual go with your husband and children?
-Yes, and we’re tenting! We’ve used to sleep in a caravan at O-Ringen, but at last year’s Sørlandsgaloppen we managed to get a tent that I sleep really well in. Should the weather be awful we may rethink it, but the children enjoy the tenting as well despite of hectic days, the energic super veteran tells us.
Fighting her way back
On Tuesday’s relay session she says:
-I suspected that I would get to try both starting first and last. This is my first taste of sessions like this, as I was occupied with childbirth last season. And this was super fun, and great training! I felt the pressure before the race. Due to my absence I needed to fight my way back into the team. I ran 20k on Monday, so I didn’t prepare for this session as such, but it has been playing in my mind nevertheless. At such short sessions the chasers can shorten in a few seconds here and there if you don’t perform technically at top standard. I decided to take charge of my own orienteering and decide for myself where to cut corners, she tells us about her tactics and performance.
