NORT 3rd stage

Niamh O'Boyle finished off the 2011 Nordic tour at the weekend with a commendable 40th place finish - Niamh filed this report.

Hubmann and Billstam take overall victory in Nordic tour 2011

The third and final stage of the Nordic tour took place south of Oslo
on Saturday. The format for this last race was a chasing start based
on the results of the previous two races in Finland and Sweden.
Sweden's Annika Billstam took overall victory in the women's race,
with Daniel Hubmann (Switzerland) finishing first in the men's class.

The top 40 men and top 30 women had GPS tracking, available to
re-watch here (there are some interesting route choices):
Men www.tulospalvelu.fi/gps/20110625ofestwcH/
Women www.tulospalvelu.fi/gps/20110625ofestwcD/

For me it was touch-and-go about competing up to the last minute.
My winter injury was starting to niggle, and in hindsight it would
probably have been better to rest it. However, when you are in the
thick of the action, you just want to keep running. Will I ever
learn!? Starting as number 42, I was alone for nearly the entire
course. I was navigating well, but physically not strong enough - the
same pattern as for the previous two races in the Nordic tour. I lost
most time in the final loop, about 3 minutes or so, but otherwise it
was a consistent run and I took all the fastest route choices,
finishing in 40th position. Thank you to the Irish Orienteering
Association for supporting me to run these races. Next stop: France!

Well done to Niamh for her performances on the tour this year. Up against some very tough competition she proved that she can mix it with the best even after several months out of action with following her recent injury.

I'm sure we will all be holding our breath hoping that Niamh can hit top form for the WOC week in France in August!