Rollercoaster-EOC

It has been up's and down's in the first part of EOC in Czech Republic for me. Two huge mistakes (one in the sprint-relay and one in the sprint-qualification) have more or less ruined the sprint-races. Still I won a silver medal in the sprint-realy due to impressive performances from my teammates (and due to mistakes from the other teams...).

Sprint-relay

I was sent out on the 2.leg in 3rd position, 30sec behind after a great performance from Cecilie, who has managed to be a very good replacement for Emma. I executed the tricky leg to first control very well and was suddenly in contact with leading Switzerland and Russia again. I was feeling good and stayed in contact with the lead for almost all the race. But in the museum-park in the end of the course I didn't see control 21 on the map and was navigating from 20-22, choosing the left routechoice. That meant I was running 5m beside control 21 and seeing the teams in front of me punching it and turning around for the right routechoice to 22. I thought to myself that it was a bit weird, and when I came to the road I doublechecked my map and realized that I had forgotten control 21. I almost couldn't believe what I have done and it felt like someone had put a knife in my stomach, and all power just disappeared. The mistake "only" costed 38 sec, but in the finish I was almost one minute behind the leaders, and most likely out of the battle for medals. Søren and Maja did really good preformances though, and when the leading teams missed in the beginning of last leg, suddenly we were back in the game for gold. In the end Maja made exactly the same mistake as me and was about to skip the same control, but somehow realized the mistake (like me) and turned back. The gold went to Russia, but we have to very satisfied with the silver-medal which was more than we expected before the relay. And with the 2 mistakes we did, maybe it was fair that we didn't win.

Sprint-qualification

I had a good start, leading my qualification heat more than halfway through the course. I didn't see a passage under the bridge at the museum, loosing 5 and 12 seconds to best time on two controls, and took a bad routechoice to control 16, but still good enough to make the final safely. But to the third last control (the easiest leg) I lost the concentration in a few seconds and ran to the wrong building, loosing 35 seconds before I realized my mistake and went back. Again I had to run the last couple of controls with the worst feeling, knowing that this might not be good enough for the final. And it wasn't...

Sprint-final

I was totally devastated because I had really been looking forward to this sprint-final, which would suited me well. I decided to run the b-final anyway, and I did a decent performance with one 10sec mistake and 2-3 bad routechoices, but good enough to win with 33sec.

Relay (and Middle?)

Originally I was only supposed to run the sprints and the relay at EOC, but after the sprint-failure, the coaches agreed to let me run the middle-distance as well. It means that I will be at the starting-line for the middle qualification tomorrow. I have been having some problems with my stomach since the sprint though, but it looks like it will be good enough to run tomorrow. The legs are feeling good and I'm motivated to show what I'm made of. After the qualification we will decide if it's realistic to make a good result in the final, or if I should save the energy for the relay.