okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Simone's reminder
I'll be running a sprint race tomorrow. Simone Niggli reminded me of one of the keys to sprint races - go to the first control, then go to the second control, then go to the third control, and so on.
At today's Nordic O' Champs in Denmark, Simone had an uncharacteristic result. She finished 25th. Here is what happened. She was on her way from 8 and didn't see the 9th control on her map. So she ran straight to 10. She didn't discover what she'd done until she was on her way to 13. She may have looked at the route choice options for 12-13 and spotted control 9, realizing she'd never been there.
Simone went back to 9 and then did 10-11-12 again.
To see someone as good as Simone make that sort of mistake is a good reminder as I think about tomorrow's sprint race.
With e-punching, I am amazed that she realized that late that she'd missed 9. During a race, I certainly have no concept of 'where I have been'. (Ricka)
My guess is that she noticed 9 when she was looking at the route choice options fro 12 to 13 and recognized that she hadn't gone to a control in that part of the map.