PreO Day 2

The second day of PreO was different from day one in just about every respect. First, there was the terrain. Day two was held in the mountains (well, at least according to the Swedes they were mountains). The area was a windmill farm with roads cut through the wilderness to reach each windmill. The terrain was much more subtle with low marshes punctuated by higher rock areas. The vegetation varied from moss-covered open rock to heather to dense stands of small pine trees and small pockets of mature forest. Many of the controls depended upon reading the vegetation patterns accurately.

Secondly, day two was a much longer course (28 controls) split into two sections. Third, the weather was bright and sunny for most of the competition. Although later competitors had to deal with a short thunderstorm. One constant was the course setter and, by extension, the style of the course setting.

Overall scores were high. This seems to be a consequence of this style of setting. An emphasis on fairness and well defined controls leads to better scores and less conflict. The course was, however, successful in it's purpose. The gold medal winner, Martin Fredholm of Sweden, was the only competitor with a perfect score on both days. It's always nice when the PreO medal is decided by the actual PreO and not by time at timed controls.

Team USA had varying results. In the open class, Clare had a decent race with only three errors to spring ahead of Sharon in the final standings. This didn't make much difference in the overall standings, gaining Clare only one place, ending in 44th. Mika also managed to pick up one place, missing five controls total for the day.

In the paralympic class, David unfortunately misunderstood the instructions at the end of the first part of the course and left without completing the time control. He received a DSQ, although we are under the impression that it was agreed to give him a PreO result, but with a maximum time penalty for the timed control. Stay tuned. Daniel made it through the course with the same level of accuracy as day one and was very tired by the end.

Eventor - Links to results and maps