Norway Tour 2006

13th to 24th August

Just a half a day after the end of the Lakes 5, 33 squad members and their coaches set off for the Ostfold region of Norway. This area includes clubs such as Halden SK, one of the best in the world, providing an excellent opportunity for training on great terrain with some of the best orienteers. This is the second part of our exchange with the Norwegian juniors from this region, they visited us at Easter for a week taking in the JK.

The first week was spent at Indre Ostfold's club hut, close to the towns of Mysen and Askim. A short run on the area, including a swim across a lake, was followed by food then bed, we had been up since 4am!

 

 

 

The next day (Monday) had a trip to Oslo with a look round the Olympic ski-jump and then a sprint race round it, or across the landing area if you opted for an interesting route.

There was a strong emphasis on cultural activities during the exchange, with visits to Norwegian industry such as Glava insulation, a hydro-electric power station and the Halden Reactor Research Project where employee Emil Wingstedt, current World Sprint Champion gave a short presentation.

Tuesday had a visit to an old nickel mine where we had a guided tour and then went climbing, abseiling and canoeing in the mine. That evening gave the first true experience of Scandinavian orienteering for some of our members, with a short race with Indre Ostfold on the area around the hut.

The next morning we went over the previous nights course, identifying mistakes and what went wrong. Hydro-electric power station in the afternoon and then visited another area for some more training.

At the weekend the squad members stayed with a Norwegian family who took them to the Regional Champs over the weekend. The field was seriously elite, with several current and former World Champions in the open class. Coach David Roome had the prospect of chasing Emil Wingstedt and being chased by top Brit Ewan McCarthy.

Everyone seemed to enjoy getting a proper race in and we had success with Steven Bragg, Beth Schorah and coach Becca Roberts winning their classes. There was a relay on the Sunday where all H/D17+ ran the open class, which was a surprise when we got there. This meant there were super-elite senior teams from all the clubs in the Ostfold and Oslo counties, but our junior teams put in respectable results.

 

 

 

We then moved further South to Sarpsborg where the training intensity seemed to step up a level. Tuesday was the tour champs race where Tom Beaseant managed to take M16 despite running the entire 6.4 km M18 course instead of cutting off. Mike Noblett took M18, Matthew Vokes M14, Lucy Harris W18 and Kate Farley W16.

We got in the traditional Fredrikstadt old town race on Monday night and a Halden Fort race on the last night with a surprise appeareance by British Squad member Scott Fraser (INT, EUOC, HSK) who has spent the last year in Halden. This was followed by a barbeque to say farewell to the Norwegians before we headed home.

26/08/06 - Matt

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