A couple of weekends ago, (October 21st – 22nd) the Máximus orienteering club held the Spanish Middle Distance, Sprint, and Forest Relay Championships, in a really dream terrain located in the municipality of Hoyo de Pinares, where I had the pleasure of being the course-setter for all the races.
The very tight program of the Spanish Orienteering Federation with the Middle and Sprint races on the same day (Saturday) and the Forest Relay (Sunday) was a real organizing challenge and a very demanding configuration for the participants. However, I think it was worth the effort!
SPANISH CHAMPIONSHIPS – MIDDLE DISTANCE
In the middle-distance race, the courses began in a fairly flat section with good visibility, where the running speed could be very high and direct orienteering predominated. After a transition area, we reached a second section where the running speed and visibility were reduced on a slope described as “brutal” by the mapmaker (Janne Weckman), where the somewhat longer and diagonal legs caused many problems to most runners.
In the men’s class, the big favorite Álvaro Casado won with a clear difference over his rivals (almost 4 minutes), thanks to excellent technical execution throughout the course, being precise in the most problematic legs and pushing hard in the simplest areas. Pau Llorens and Isaac Hernández occupied the silver and bronze places. The absence of another favorite, Luis Nogueira, who missed the championship due to injury, stands out.
One of the most decisive legs was 10-11, where many of the runners went too far up the slope, and some of them were completely lost. Especially big was the mistake of Eduardo Gil (one of the favorites) who until control 10 was clearly in the running for a medal, but who lost more than 7 minutes in this leg.
| 1 | Casado Gómez, Álvaro | Madrid GOCAN | 31:32 | 0:00 |
| 2 | Llorens Caellas, Pau | Girona CAT-O | 35:27 | +3:55 |
| 3 | Hernández Pindado, Isaac | Badajoz CODAN_EXTREMADURA | 35:57 | +4:25 |
| 4 | Delenne, Adrien | Cáceres VIA_PLATA | 38:44 | +7:12 |
| 5 | Rojas Jiménez, David | Madrid ALABARDA-O | 39:06 | +7:34 |
| 6 | Weber, Jonas Falck | Tisvilde Hegn OK Tisvilde Hegn OK | 39:20 | +7:48 |
| 7 | Ruiz De La Herrán Pidal, Javier | Málaga COMA | 40:01 | +8:29 |
| 8 | Munktved, Theis | Tisvilde Hegn OK Tisvilde Hegn OK | 40:42 | +9:10 |
| 9 | Moran Moran, Colm | FEDO FEDO | 41:46 | +10:14 |
| 10 | Weber, Lasse Falck | Tisvilde Hegn OK Tisvilde Hegn OK | 42:08 | +10:36 |
In the women’s class, we expected a close battle between the great favorite Ana Isabel Toledo (who won all the national titles in 2022) and the two contenders Nerea González and María Prieto. However, this battle was not so close due to the huge mistakes we could see in this class in the lower part of the slope, in addition to some unfortunate disqualifications. The victory was very clear (more than 11 minutes difference) for María Prieto who achieved a stable race avoiding big mistakes. The second-best time (without a medal option) went to the Swedish Jennie Börjesson, while the silver and bronze medals went to Guadalupe Moreno and Inés Pozo.
Leg 8-9 in the women’s class was a real nightmare for most of the runners. The main problem in this leg is not correctly analyzing the shapes of the relief and “intuiting” that you should go very high up the slope, when in reality both controls are at the same level. This fact, together with the lack of a solid plan for the execution of the leg, ended up with many runners trying to relocate in a really complicated area, which resulted in very significant losses of time.
In the final part, probably due to fatigue and lack of concentration, some runners like Ana Toledo and Nerea González mispunched control 15, mistaking it for another flag from other classes.
| 1 | Prieto Del Campo, María | Madrid MALARRUTA | 36:27 | 0:00 |
| 2 | Börjesson Eriksson, Jennie | Pontevedra RAZA_PALLEIRA | 41:41 | +5:14 |
| 3 | Moreno Zúñiga, Guadalupe | Zaragoza IBON ZARAGOZA | 48:14 | +11:47 |
| 4 | Pozo Prada, Ines | Madrid O-GETAFE | 49:20 | +12:53 |
| 5 | García Castro, Marina | León ALCON | 50:23 | +13:56 |
| 6 | Martí Romaní, Joana | Girona CAT-O | 51:10 | +14:43 |
| 7 | Pons Pérez, Amanda | Burgos CORZO | 56:16 | +19:49 |
| 8 | Parga Basanta, Lucia | Pontevedra AROMON | 1:01:15 | +24:48 |
| 9 | Guijo Alonso, Marta | Cáceres VIA_PLATA | 1:01:48 | +25:21 |
| 10 | Trabal Garmon, Alba | Girona CAT-O | 1:02:43 | +26:16 |
In case you liked this terrain, the 4th stage of Maximus O Meeting 2024 (chasing start) will be also held here!
Orienteering Coach 