Patrick Hofmeister

Now, as the heatwave is hitting Germany with a vengeance, it is time to provide a little review of the happenings of the early phases of this summer. Almost four weeks ago I packed my stuff and left Jönköping to travel through Scandinavia in order to take part in the Nordic Orienteering Tour (NORT). I wrote already about the first stage in Finland where I had a pretty good race and kept the time behind the winner to a minimum. Race number 2 was a knock-out sprint held in Stockholm. First, there was a regular sprint qualification from which the best 30 runners made it into the quarter finals. I made one big mistake at the control right before the long route-choice and lost 15s there. The rest of the race was fairly good which brought me to 58th place at the end, a little bit more than 2 minutes behind the fastest man that day. The finals in the old town of Stockholm were very interesting to follow although there was still a lot of room for improvement as far as the TV production was concerned. Four days later the NORT stopped in Raufoss, 100k north of Oslo. This time the competition format was a longer middle distance held as a chasing start. I started around 10min behind the leader of the overall standing Daniel Hubmann. Nevertheless, there were a bunch of other runners heading out into the woods around me. Already at the fourth control we were a group of five runners. Apart from the short loop in the middle part of the race, I had runners around me all the time. Technically it went very well making maybe 1 minute mistake all in all. At the end I finished in 42nd spot, mainly due to the fact that many runners skipped the last stage. Anyways, I was happy with my overall result that reflects three solid runs in demanding Scandinavian terrain.
The day after the last World Cup race, the German team took part in the O-Festivalen relay. I was running the third and shortest leg. Physically I could not push that hard but technically it went well again. We came on a decent 10th place at the end. After a short stop at a local pub watching Germany demolishing the English football team, we drove north to Trondheim. The 6 hours road trip already gave us a little foretaste of what was to expect in Trondheim. Through the car windows we could see the amazing landscape consisting of open highlands, wide marshes, mountain lakes and small streams meandering through steep valleys. Most of the trainings in Trondheim met our expectations, especially those on the maps Bosbergsheia and Iladalen. At the end of the week, we took part in the selection races of Sweden and Norway. First, it was Sprint where I showed another good sprint performance this year being only 1min31s behind the best time. Unfortunately, the middle and long distance were disastrous. A lot of green forest and huge mistake made me ending up at the end of the result list.
Now, I am at my parents place enjoying the lovely hot German summer. For those who do not know yet, the World Cup races were my last competitions this season. In two weeks, I will be sitting on a flight to Singapore where I am studying the next 4 months. This means no WOC for me this year. I made this decision already some months ago and adapted my season plans accordingly. Instead of the World Champs I was running the European Champs and the Nordic Tour. For the rest of this year I am prioritizing my studies which draw to a close. According to the latest ranking the Singapore Management University is among the top business schools worldwide. Thus, I hope to get some further inspirations for my master thesis. Drop by on this Blog to stay informed about what is going on with me in Asia. Then however I will be providing more daily life and travel reports than orienteering news.