Mats Ogdén (mogd001) - NOC, NWOC and OK Linné Löpare

Great start, then really bad mistake to the 5th - just lost control of the direction again. Small mistake to the 9th then caught back up with Erik. Sat on his back on the way to 12 but we drifted left. After this there was a large pack with really high speed which was fun. Managed to climb 3 places to finish 17th in H21 Lång. Cool week!

Lost control of the direction to 2, miss to 8 in the circle and then a bad route choice to 9 - I had wanted to go straight but found myself on the edge of the striped area. 14 and 15 were not optimal.

Nice end to the WOC racing, 15th and first commonwealth team. I had a really good race apart from the 14th control where I didn't have any map to read as I had damaged it earlier in the race. Had to improvise to find the control but unfortunately the gamble didn't pay off and I lost 2 minutes.

Very very tough, physically and technically. Conditions were hot.

To 1 I was perhaps too much on the edge. Just running through the terrain was challenging enough, let alone reading the map. I was sure I was looking at the large white re-entrant as I hit the control circle, but then didn't correct left. Not a great way to start.

From there 2, 3 and 4 were ok but I missed some micro route choices. found it almost impossible to find a decent flow in the terrain. To 5 I didn't pick a good route choice going too far to the right. After that it was kind of ok technically barring the bad route choices to 18 and 21. But physically it was just so so tough, the ending purely brutal.

First race in Europe for 2023; really tough physically. Started off well but soon became really tired and demotivated running through the shitty marshes and green areas. The focus dropped and started making some silly mistakes - poor exit directions, in the circle. Can't say it was an overly enjoyable experience but good to get some racing under the belt. Time for MTNs and preparations towards the real goals.

Map was crap, it was all green to number 1 which threw me. Then to 2 I ran along a vegetation boundary, to the right was dark green. Put a stick through my shoe and into my foot on the way to 17 so decided to call it quits after that - nothing too major. Large group which was fun.

Nice middle simulation set by Dev. Missed the route choice on the road to 4. Parallel mistake to 8, then had some trouble finding the controls (10,11,13) despite being so close. Vegtetation in the clearings has now grown significantly, making it even more challenging!

Much better than yesterday, I would say mostly calibrated to the terrain. Still a big mistake to 12 and then an even bigger mistake to 13 when the two infront of me took the lead and I proceeded to lose contact with the map. I didn't have great confidence going into 12, but even still I am not sure how you can have a boulder cluster in a sea of boulders as a control site.

Well that was something else. Such brutal terrain hard to have many good feelings out there. I generally enjoyed the course, Zefa held nothing back and made it as difficult as possible. 9 was the biggest mistake, but I think that the control might have been slightly in the wrong place.

Mistakes to 3,5,16 and 17. 16 was particularly annoying as I was nailing it, but then decided to have a look around at the other stream systems before taking the control. Beautiful day, great area.

Nice to go super easy and focus on the nav. Followed the boys for the control picking and had a little "rogaine" style competition in the countours and rocks only exercise.