It was our third visit to Belgium for the 3 Days in 4 years. The weather was very good for orienteering but not quiet up to stamina sapping 26 degrees of two years ago. After the excellent forests of Profondeville 2002 and the "Little Switzerland" terrain of Malmedy in 2003, this years event was based around the city of Genk, near the Dutch border.
The terrain was described in the programme as "typical terrain of the Kempen". This turned out to be extensive areas of sand dunes mainly covered in forest with ample track networks. The contour interval as a result was 2metres. Whenever the courses left the forest the sand became very soft and made going very difficult. This was usually in the last few kilometers of each day.
On arrival in Charleroi we headed to the event centre near Genk and partook of the training day at Houthalen. This gave us a taste of what was to come. The first competitive day took place at De Roeler, just to the south of Genk. For day two we were on De Sahara near Lommel on the road to Eindhoven after which we took the opportunity to drop into Holland for a beer and a look around at Valkensward. The final day was on the dunes at Hechtel.
We feel that we did well over the weekend with our times being consistent each day. John(Rowe,H45) had a great run on day one but slipped up a bit on day 2 before recovering well on the last day finishing 41st overall. Fearghal's ( Burke, H16) running was good over the three days and finished 15th. It was a big step up in both distance and technicality for Fearghal (from Light Green in Ireland), but his times were consistent with his best run coming in De Sahara. As for myself, I ended up 53rd out off 77 entries in H50. This is consistent with my results from both Profondeville and Malmedy, however it's a mystery to me how an orienteer( in the older categories- that is H50) can run a 7.2 km course with 20 controls in a time of 40 minutes(winning time each day), especially in terrain that's as difficult as this.
After the final race , we headed for an overnight stay and to enjoy the sights of Brussels. Its a gorgeous city with plenty of museums , etc.. However its not a good idea to take a car in there. The orienteering of one way streets and mad drivers is definitely not enjoyable. Nonetheless, we are all looking forward to returning to Belgium in the future for more orienteering. Maybe next time we can get a few more members to come along.
Just for the record next year's 3 Jours de Belgique takes place around Marche- en -Famenne in the province of Namur on 3 rd . 4th and 5 th June , with a training day on the 2nd. Anyone wanting a copy of the entry form contact myself, Tommy Burke.
