The competitions moved to Tahko starting from this day. The competitions were sprint then TempO in Tahko village. I did class H21E in sprint as I am an elite competitor in sprint back in Hong Kong. However, in the competition I was burnt out after about 9 controls and started to get confused, nearly missed a control point as well. I returned at 31’25”, again the last competitor in my class, while the second last was only 23’53”, much like…
This day was officially designated a rest day by Fin5, however it was the most important day for me in this trip because despite a “rest day”, there were 2 world ranking competitions, 1 TempO and 1 PreO on that day. These world ranking competitions were held in Halssi, at a walkable distance from Nilsiä which meant I didn’t need transport on the day. We did TempO first, then PreO. There were 7 stations with 5 controls each in TempO….
I started doing the competitions on the 2nd day of Fin5. It was a long distance competition, followed by a PreO (1st competition in TrailO). I took the organiser bus to the competition, but it didn’t work after the competition since the return time was between the competitions. I did class H21AL (L meant shortened distance) in the middle and long competitions, and this day it was about 7.2 km. I was the last competitor returning in 2 hours, but…
This day I did my first race in my trip – LGSA Classic. It is a 13 km lake swimming race from 🇨🇭 Lausanne to 🇫🇷 Évian-les-Bains. The start was divided into 4 waves based on the expected finishing time, from slowest to fastest, and I was assigned wave 2. The course was a simple straight line, therefore I expected to aim for the destination directly. However it was impossible to see the exact finish beach 13 km away so…
On 4/5, day 5 of my trip, I went to Porvoo for doing FinTrailO. TempO and PreO were held in that day. However, the terrain was too difficult for me, mainly rock and cliff hidden in forest. I scored 790 seconds for 30 controls in TempO, where the winning time was only 237 seconds, and 15 out of 28 in PreO. It was snowing in May! However, the preceding days in the end of April were very warm, like in…
I did my second orienteering competition, Swedish League in this trip on day 4 of my trip, 3rd May. It was a sprint competition with world ranking status. It was the highest level competition in Sweden. The competition was held in Fisksätra with a typical suburban setting, running between low density residences. My friend Raphael, living in Gothenburg, was there as well. However, even I was a so called elite in sprint orienteering in Hong Kong, I got another last…
The first orienteering competition in my trip was IFK Lidingö, middle distance. It was a national level competition and nearly a thousand people participated. The scale was much more than the competitions in Hong Kong, there were a market and also a stall selling orienteering equipments. I participated in class H21 (H means men in Sweden). The map was very white and the difficulty was very high when compared to similar races in Hong Kong. As a result I returned…
On the weekend of Easter, I was so anxious because 3 consecutive days of thunderstorm weathered out my training plan, which I intended to push my endurance limit to see if I was ready for marathon swimming, as I had signed up for a marathon swimming race in July. The anxiety was gone after I knew that I could do 11 km in 2 consecutive days, with 1 of the days in high intensity, which means I could reasonably complete…
I have just finished my longest open water swimming competition in my life today – the DWB. The race was organised by the VRC (Victoria Recreation Club – known for paddling and open water swimming) and this was the 3rd year of the race (the first was in 2017). It was stated as a 5 km race by the organiser. 2 years ago, in 2017, when I saw that the cut-off time was 1 hour and 45 minutes, I thought…
August 4th to 9th: World Orienteering Championships (sprint), World Trail Orienteering Championships After arriving Riga, I reached at the main part of my journey: orienteering competitions. This year’s World Orienteering Championships and World Trail Orienteering Championships were held together. I am an official representative in TempO only, so I participated in the public events for the rest of the competitions. August 4th was the sprint World Championships, the preliminary was held in the park, and the final was held in…