A winter and spring full of sickness ended with another sickness leading up to my only chance to qualify for WOC. 3 days after Jukola and 2 days before World Cup in Oslo I woke up with a sore throat.

Early this morning I started my travel to Czech Republic and the last training camp before WOC.

Aftenposten.no says that there is a forest fire south of Oslo close to Åsland Pukkverk (gravel pit). Åsland Pukkverk is on the old map over the area for this year's Norwegian O-festival and World Cup races.

While the world elite is preparing and now fighting for EOC medals, I am home recovering from sickness and preparing for WOC. This weekend I had three map sessions.

Because of illness I am unable to run the Norwegian EOC test races this weekend. Hence EOC is out of the question too. I was sick just before Tiomila and turned ill again 4 days after Tiomila. I have not trained at all the 10 last days.

The annual Norwegian Sports Gala took place Saturday evening. This is an event were all the best Norwegian athletes are honoured for their performances last year. Amazingly I won one of the prizes.

My training so far this year has not gone like a dream. I have to go back to 1993 to find a year with less training in November and December. But it still looks better than last year?

After my worst training month in more than ten years, it was wonderful to get out in the forest and orienteer yesterday.

This week I got a good dose of honour and glory ? something that an orienteer can?t exactly take for granted. Both my hometown of Arendal, my homecounty of Aust Agder and the city of Kristiansand, where I live now, honoured me in different ways.

Today it is 16 days since my nose surgery and I have still not started training.

Yesterday I underwent surgery on my nose. Due to a narrow nose I have had problems with stuffy nose even when I am not having a cold.

Saturday evening the Norwegian O-federation hosted their first ever Orienteering Galla. Several prizes were given out and I had the great pleasure and honour to receive the award "Orienteer of the year".

We aimed for a medal and hoped to fight for the gold. But we were simply not good enough today.

After a not so good middle distance I was hungry for some success in the long distance. With close to no mistakes I managed to bring home a bronze medal.

I didn?t find "the flow" in the beginning of the race, but it was two bigger mistakes that ended my chance of a medal.

After a week in Brasil the competitions are getting close. Tomorrow the World Military Championships will start with the middle distance.

This fall Holger is turning into a serious globe-trotter.

Gradually after WOC my shape has been declining. At the World Cup in France I did not feel in good shape even if it didn?t feel too bad. But the last two weeks of uninspired training have led to even worse shape, and today in the cross-country race "F?rstemann til Kulia? I felt terrible.

A twisted ankle in the last individual world cup race of the year, with a relay race the following day, made me ease off the impact on the foot last week. My training consisted only of biking, balancing and strength.

Last individual world cup race of the year ended with a 6th place. I kept my 4th place in the overall world cup.

Just like yesterday's sprint I did another decent performance in todays long distance race. I ended 4th, and could take with me some important points in the overall world cup standing.

Today I ran the first of three finals in the last World Cup round of the season. I did a good race and ended 7th. Overall a performance I was happy with, but my physical shape could have been better.

After a good race in todays Norwegian Sprint Championships, I brought home a bronze medal. Sprint is the distance I spend the least time preparing for. Therefore I am really happy to get a medal in the Norwegian Championships.

My weekend at Norwegian Championships in Hovden really lived up to Hovden?s motto: H?yt og Herlig!

Friday the 4th of August 2006 will forever be printed in my mind.

I arrived in Denmark with a newly set record on my test course. My shape was definitely good enough to fight for medals. But yesterday?s Long Final turned in to a nightmare.

After a poorer result in the middle distance qualification than what I hoped for, my tactics for the long distance qualification were slightly altered from the original plan.

After a 30 second miss on the second control everything went as planned, and I was happy with my performance. But I wasn't that happy with my result.

In less than 16 hours this year?s world championship (WOC 2006), and of course my biggest goal of the season, will start.

After being pre-qualified for WOC before last weekend?s selection races in Sweden, I hoped my chances for running three distances was quite high. Even if I wasn?t very motivated or focused before the selection races I managed to perform quite well.

Today I ran the traditional KOK-test "Spigg?ren-B?den".

After IOF?s World Ranking was introduced a few years ago I have managed to stay quite high up on the list, with second place as my all time high. But right now my trend is falling.

What a wonderful feeling to be running 2 hour again. Last time was 8th of September, the Norwegian long distance championships.

EOC didn?t turn out with the results I was hoping for. Maybe not my biggest surprise ever, considering the last half year of training I have been going through.

I made my worst race of the week, but still qualified comfortably in to the long final tomorrow. I ended 7th in my heat (the best 17 in each heat qualify). Results.

Before EOC I thought that the middle distance would be my best chance for a medal. A 15th place was therefore a disappointment. Results.

Today I ran a perfect qualification race. No mistakes and energy-conserving running.

The opening distance ended for me with a 28th place, 47,7 seconds behind the winner Emil Wingsted.

KOK?s mens team set a club record in Tiomila this weekend. 9th place is not bad, but we had a dream to win Tiomila. That dream is still alive.

After spending the first few days of the national team training camp in Otep?? cruising through Estonian terrain at low speed, the two last days was dedicated to high speed.

A new webpage that collects news from several orienteering webpages around the world was launched today.

Or ?Greetings from Estonia?

For those of you who might have begun to suspect otherwise, Holger is not dead? just far away from a computer at the moment. A news update by Sandy

We are 12 guys fighting for the Tiomila team. Two of them will have to watch?only 10 can play.

Holger and J?rgen were featured in the local sports review on TVS?R today. You can see the broadcast on web-TV.

After four months since new-years-trainings-eve I have trained a total of 318 hours and 40 minutes. This is a personal record in amount of training hours for the period November 1st to February 28th.

This weekend was spent with the national team in Sandnes just outside Stavanger, Norway?s oil capital.

This weekend I only trained twice. But both of the work-outs were long, really long.

Last week a lot of snow dumped down over southern Norway. Many people probably experienced this as a pain in the neck, because of all the shovelling, slow traffic and power outages. But to me this was a blessing.

While I was away for Christmas holiday my relay team from WOC 2005 was nominated in the annual ?Idrettsgalla? as a candidate for ?Best team?. In Idrettsgalla the best Norwegians athletes every year are honoured. The event is broadcasted live on national TV.

Last week I performed my first running steps in nearly three months. Due to my inflamed big-toe I have not been running since WC in Italy, beginning of October.

This year we are spending Christmas in Sandy's childhood home in Waterside, New Brunswick. In order to gather the whole flock of Smith siblings we are celebrating Christmas every second year in Canada and Norway.

Thursday it was two months since the world cup relay in Italy. Since then I have not been running a single step. My toe is still not allowing me to run. It is frustrating, but what can I do?

Last weekend was spent in Oslo with the national team. There were lots of activities on the agenda.

This weekend we were on a club training camp in Bykle, a small mountain village in the area where KOK will be hosting Norwegian Championships (NM) this summer. The name of the game was team-building.

Last week I spent with the national team in Silkeborg, Denmark. This was our team's first camp preparing for WOC 2006.

Due to my painful toe, which has prevented me from running the last month, I had an MRI (MR-bilder) taken last week. The answers from the MRI arrived Friday.

1st of November is the beginning of the new training year. Today I will for the first time hear the crack of my new training diary?s back.

Friday evening was KOK-fest, the club's annual celebration of its achievements for the year.

My notorious life of running, working, running, eating, neglecting friends, and sleeping has the last weeks been replaced with an alternative lifestyle.

I morgen l?rdag 22.10.2005 g?r det tradisjonsrike langl?pet Blodslitet i Fredrikstad. Det blir dessverre uten meg p? startstreken.

Jon Duncan l?per fra og med 1. januar 2006 for Kristiansand Orienteringsklubb. Det er jeg meget glad for. Briten som bor i Stavanger, har de siste ?rene l?pt for Halden SK.

Planen var ? avslutte ?rets orienteringssesong med Blodslitet i Fredrikstad. Dessverre har et vondt storet?ledd plaget meg kraftig den siste uka, og det er meget usikkert om jeg stiller til start.

Etter fadesen p? den individuelle WC-finalen torsdag, ville jeg gjerne avslutte ?rets internasjonale sesong med et toppl?p. Det klarte jeg idag p? den avsluttende stafetten, og kan dermed reise fra Italia med et lysere sinn enn det jeg hadde torsdag ettermiddag.

Etter seks poster med nedoverorientering i skog, ble vi kastet inn i en ekstrem sprint hvor kartlesing betydde mer enn maksimalt oksygenopptak.

Dagens sprintkvalifisering startet katastrofalt med over ett minutt bom paa foerste post. Heldigvis fikk jeg mer tak paa kart og terreng etterhvert. Historien endte dermed lykkelig med startplass i onsdagens finale.

Mandagens mellomdistanse startet bra med 3. plass i kvalifiseringen. I finalen ble det dessverre for mye bom.

26.-28. august reiste vi til Silkeborg for ? sjekke ut vegetasjonen ved neste ?rs VM. Det ble tre langturer i terrenget rundt Silkeborg. For egen del innebar det fem timer trening og 100 poster. Store deler av terrenget har lite undervegetasjon. Det betyr at ogs? treningssamlinger gjennom vinteren vil ha stor relevans...

Selv om jeg reiser hjem fra NM p? Konnerud med gull og s?lv i bagasjen, er jeg ikke forn?yd med egne prestasjoner. Det ble rett og slett for mye bomming for min del...

Velkommen til v?r nye hjemmeside. Her planlegger vi ? skrive om v?re konkurranser og trening, legge ut kart og linker samt presentere sponsorer. Det vil nok ta en liten stund f?r hjemmesiden blir slik vi vil ha den. V?r ambisjon er ? legge ut nyheter 1 til 2 ganger i uken...