Gran Canaria's first Sprint Orienteering Race on Europe's most Southern Map

On Saturday 19th June new orienteering club O-riéntate and Active Canaria held Gran Canaria's first ever Sprint Race on Allan Bogle's new map (Gran Canaria's first ISSOM map and also Europe's most Southern orienteering map.

Although there were not as many competitors as was hoped (clashed with several other events) the day was
a great success for orienteering in Gran Canaria, bringing the level of organisation to 'a new level'.
Aside from the Principal race which consisted of a Prologue and Final, the organisers also held an event for beginners (Ven y Prueba- Come and try) and also a race for children.

The Prologue started at 10am from Faro 2 shopping centre in Maspalomas, with two runners starting at the same time and running different loops before punching a central control and then running their second loop. The fastest time in the Prologue was Fran Herandez in a time of 18.58, closely follow by Gran Canaria's resident Finn Mikka in a time of 20.55.
In the come-and-try event there were some very impressive times from new orienteers Alison Hill and Mike Kneeshaw (who would have placed very highly if they had ran the Principal race).

The final used a chasing start format with Fran starting first followed by Mikka. Fran had a very impressive final extending his lead to just under 5 minutes. Although making a few mistakes in the final Mikka was able to hold of Pedro who had an amazing final.

Circular de Tejeda

It has been a very long time since I have up-dated this Blog (I am sure not too many people have noticed), partly due to being very busy with work etc. and partly due being disappointed with my last race, Circular de Tejeda.

About one month ago I ran a race called Circular de Tejeda in Gran Canaria, which was a 38km trail race with alot of climb. From the beginning I was not on form and found the early (set by Ismael Molero Bethencourt) pace hard! Which was surprising as it was the perfect sort of race for me, steep climbs and rocky.

It was not long before Ismael opened at gap and I really had to struggle to keep him in eyes’ distance. However suddenly (around 15km) without realising it I was back together with him, we ran together for a few kilometres, however I found it difficult to hold my pace and started to drop back again. I found the next few kilometres very hard and started to cramp. To add to the misery I also took a wrong turning and ran about 500m in the wrong direction before realising that I made a mistake. When I got back on track I had been caught by the 3rd placed runner…and mentally I was defeated! I hobbled the next 5km, feeling really dehydrated and cramping badly. And if things weren’t bad enough I took another wrong turn (not my fault…the taping during this race was the worst I have ever seen)…and to cut ‘a long story short’…after several phone calls to the race organisers I could not understand where I was supposed to run and decided to drop out of the race and hitched a ride back with the red-cross. Not a good day…but a lovely course…