18/07/05: PostFinance Sprint and Swiss 5 day (and a holiday!?)
Oli and I headed to Switzerland for a holiday/pre-WOC training camp which included a possible 7 races in 8 days.

The first weekend was the 2nd annual PostFinance Sprint which started with a middle qualifier (and WOC selection race for the Swiss team) with a very tough 10% climb. Oli ran well with just one real mistake to finish 7th whilst Sarah Rollins and I had bad runs but managed to qualify for the following day's sprint final. The sprint was held in the beautiful town of Bellinzona which boasts 3 hill-top castles and some intricate snickelways which made it great for sprint orienteering. The 3 Brits in the senior final were boosted by a great run from GBR JWOC runner Scott Fraser who won the Junior Sprint Race pocketing almost £500 in the process. Unfortunately we couldn't match his performance with Sarah and Oli finishing 8th and me 10th. The race was shown live on Swiss TV and was a great model for media and specator friendly races with large adverts all around the town in the run up to it and a very professional overall set-up. The world's best orienteers were invited to compete with the top 100 in the World Ranking list offered free entry and a banquet and the World Champions offered flights and accommodation. It is hoped that many of the World's Elites will travel to Bern for next year's race which should be spectaculor. I hope we can make it again!

After the weekend of races the Swiss 5 day began on Monday with another race around Bellinzona. Day 2 in Tesserete was the middle qualification of JWOC and very close races saw 3 British girls and 2 guys through to the A finals. The middle final was on Day 3 for us and Scott ran well to finish 10th with Mhairi the best girl in 17th despite feeling ill. Oli ran well on Days 2 and 3 finishing within the top Swiss elite but Marc Launstein was continuing his fantastic form which saw him win 3 out of 4 Swiss selection races. Unfortunately I was ill on Day 2 and had to stop after the first control and then struggled on Day 3. Oli raced Day 4 seriously but finished well down on Baptiste Rollier before running the JWOC coaches race on Day 5 (instead of waiting for a 4pm start having got there at 9:30am to watch the relays!) and could only finish 3rd. It was a tough week for the juniors and they maintained their team spirit well despite a few colds making the rounds. Congratulations to Scott on a solid set of results - a great platform to build on for next year and well done to everyone else for some good performances. It was lovely to get to know the juniors and to see them trying so hard.

Highlights of the week included: going to see Jamiroquai with Dave and Sarah in the main square in Locarno, the fantastically well-organised PostFinance Sprint weekend, running up a mountain on our rest day (sorry we didn't come to the classic), cheering on the GB junior team and going to the GB team supporters picnic from the opposite side for a change, swimming in lakes and rivers, and last but not least collecting the Swiss O-team stickers - an excellent idea that the British Squad really should copy!

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