All of a sudden we found ourselves waking up on the final day of the European Orienteering Champs.  We drove to Lier, the closest of the four locations to Antwerp, on a relatively quiet Sunday morning.  For the first time, we were sharing the arena with the elites – and we found out what we’d been missing out on!  Filling the Grote Markt square was a banner-lined finish chute, tents galore, huge media trucks with giant screens for GPS tracking, commentary in multiple languages, food trucks, and marshals with whistles on every corner.  The atmosphere was buzzing – something that had been missing on the other days, which felt more like local club events.  As a backdrop we had the town hall, with its clock tower dating back to 1369. I was having a serious case of Arena Envy, and new respect for the organising team.

Our races were classic old town sprints.  Start by running to the arch.  Turn left across the square to the astronomical clock.  Hard right, and over the flower-lined stone bridge, crossing the canal.  Cross the street and into the ornamental park, then on into a campus of some sort. Another park, then over another stone bridge and into the cobblestone streets leading back to the main square.  Punch the final control on the corner of the church, dodge around the fountain, and into the finish.

After five days, my brain finally worked properly, and I was reading the map easily.  Each control just appeared where it should, and I had my cleanest run of the week (although my pace on day 1 was quicker, but I put that down to fewer controls and fewer cobbles, both of which slow you down).  We had 21 controls in 2.6 km, so they came up thick and fast.  I enjoyed this race best of the six.

After a lunch of Belgian frites and mayonnaise from one of the food trucks, we found ourselves a position to watch the Mens Sprint Final.  Being a European Champs and a World Cup round, this was a Big Deal.  Only one of the Australian team had qualified, with Victorian Callum White unlucky to miss the cut by just 6 seconds.  We were happy just to watch the best in the world racing live.

We could watch the starts on the big screen, and follow the GPS tracking, then see them live as they ran into a spectator loop around the square.  Then they disappeared, reappearing as they approached the finish.  The large crowd cheered for everyone, but when the Belgian favourite came in, they roared at the tops of their voices.  These guys run at 3.10 mins/km, while reading their maps.  It’s exciting to watch.  There was Antipodean excitement for a while as New Zealand superstar Tim Robertson held the lead for some time, but eventually he was knocked down to 6^th.   The winner was from France, which seemed to meet with approval from the largely Belgian crowd.

As for our results, Ted finished second overall, and received a prize and the honour of standing on the podium.  Ian finished 7^th – unsurprisingly, as that was his position on 3 of the 5 days – and pretty good in a field of almost 40 Europeans.  Margi and I had been swapping overall places, but my good run today moved me ahead.  Both of us were happy to have a few names under ours.  We did get to drop our worst result, so my poor showing at Herentals was discounted.

Today we said goodbye to Ted and Margi, who are heading home.  We took a train to Brussels, then another to Cologne.  Here we are staying in a much smaller but very well located apart-hotel studio room, with a small kitchen.  It will prove very convenient for exploring Germany’s 4^th largest city, as we begin to make our way south along the Rhine River.