WOC 2018 summary
The training went all right and I felt ready to fight at WOC 2018. Traveling to Latvia wasn’t that smooth though. We travelled only two days before the competition and thanks to LOT it took as way longer than we expected. Eventually, we arrived to Riga in the late evening 2nd August without luggage. Not perfect pre-race preparation, I would say.
Sprint
I didn’t feel very strong in my body right before the sprint qualification. I guess traveling and early waking up played a certain role. I ran slower than I’m used to and I wanted to. Up to that I made two major mistakes (2x 25’’) and few smaller. All together it was too much lost time and I didn’t make it to the final. That was a huge disappointment for me. Final seemed to be such a nice and technical course! I was worried about my shape too. Would it be all right in forest? I was not sure. It took me a lot of mental power to put myself together. I want to thank my coach, boyfriend and family to help me with it.
And in the afternoon I could enjoy cheering for others and saw them bringing nice results: Terka 19th, Ada 37th,Vojtech 11th, Milos 12th, Marek 25th.
Foto: Mareks Galinovskis
Middle
Main goal was to focus on a technical part of a performance and let legs do their job. Just didn’t think too much and stood in the moment, taking control by control. It went pretty well. I was in the control at the beginning of the course. I made a mistake to 8k (too left + insecurity = 30”). Also some hesitation around 10k and wrong direction from 15k (25”). And I felt like I was actually running! That was very important for me. Overall it was good performance in my opinion. Not the perfect one but the one I needed so badly after WUOC and WOC sprint. 16th place is plus minus where I belong right now. More training is needed to be a stable part of TOP10. Today was not about me but about other Czech girl on the start. Jana Knapova ran an almost perfect race and brought home great 5th place! Huge congratulation girl, so well deserved for you :) Among men, Vojtěch 14th, Pavel 22nd, Milos 33rd.
Foto: Mareks Galinovskis
Relay
I have to admit I’ve had quite big expectations from the relay race. I believe Czech girls belong to TOP6 and we have not been able to prove it at WOC since 2015. It’s a shame and I believed we could do it this year in Latvia. And you know, once you’re fighting for TOP6, anything can happen among girls…
Unfortunately, it didn’t happen to us in 2018. Youngster Terka Janosikova was set to run the first leg. A huge responsibility connected to running 1st leg at WOC probably together with a lack of experience in such a terrain led to many mistakes. Tough experience for her. And for us it was basically the end of our hopes. More than 7 minutes behind after the first leg, I could not do much on the second leg. I ran alone chasing at least some positions. It went well, especially the first part. Then I didn’t execute well the long leg (about 2min of loss). Eventually, I finished 10th. Jana ran also a good race on the last leg and we finished 9th. Not where we hoped to be before the race but quite ok development during the race. Next time we’ll finally break it, I believe!
Thrilling race of men where our boys finished 5th. Nice job!
Foto: Janis Ligats
Long
After another rest day the final race of WOC came – the toughest, the longest, the king discipline, simply the long distance. I like challenges and the course with its parameters in such a terrain definitely was one of them. I looked forward to it. I simply wanted to perform well. I was ready for complex route choices, we did a lot of theoretical preparations. I knew it’s always better to take few extra seconds to think about route choice options than take the first seen and then lost minutes. Unfortunately, before I even had chances to think about route choices alone, I didn’t execute well the 1st control. When I found it, Inga Dambe came. We ran plus minus together till 4k, where I rather decided fast so I would not have to run with her any more. That was a mistake, because I missed the best route choice (slightly left) which I realized during executing the leg. Not a good situation, thinking about route choices instead of focusing on an executing the one. It also led to me to messing up the execution and overall loss of 4min on this leg. At the 5th control I already lost 6min to my good performance. That was not a start I wanted to do and I knew it. I am happy that it didn’t break me down. Instead I put myself together and continued the fight through the race. The rest of the race was good with only few major mistakes and I think I could be satisfied with it. The only pity is that it didn’t go that all the way. Hopefully next time… The final 15th place is way better than I would expect after my performance especially at the first third of the race. It is a good sign that I again made a step forward which I hopefully use better next year.
Jana had about the same race as me and finished 17th. Boys - Vojtěch 13th, Pavel 21st, Miloš 25th.
Foto: Janis Ligats
Conclusion
I have mixed feelings about this year WOC. Sprint didn’t go as I hoped. I know I’m not the strongest in flat easy sprints as qualifications usually are. To succeed in that kind of races I need to have the day and that was not a case at WOC. Next chances are coming soon – World Cup Final in Czech Republic full of sprints is just behind a corner. I’m glad I overcame the sprint disappointment, run good race at middle and finished at stable 16th place. Relay was a letdown. We know we can do so much better than this. Next time we’ll break the bad luck for sure! And long? I’m nicely surprised with the 15th place after my not top performance. Good sign at the end of the week.
This year WOC is in the past. I would like to thank you all for the support I received during the whole event. Special thanks belong to my great coach Kačor (Jarosav Kacmarcik), my boyfriend Michal, my family, friends and of course also to my partners Best4Run, Sportifnutrition and O-Run. Now training ‘s began for upcoming important events – World Cups in Norway and most important World Cup Final Round in Prague, Czech Republic. See you there :)
Foto: World Orienteering Championship 2018