On Sunday, there will be a fast TempO race in the center of Vihti and a PreO race a short drive away in the wilderness.

Speed is a core thing on the TempO track, but accuracy is also needed. On a fast course, a single mistake can be too much. The map is uniform and clear. The mapper hasn’t gone wrong with too much details, even if in some places it could have been possible, but has only described everything essential. The EA, of course, made no mistakes in the test run, but I don’t expect competitors to be able to do that. The time of the winner in the 11-station competition may still be around 200 seconds.

The PreO race is held in two or actually three parts, because the time control is held in the center of Vihti before moving to the actual competition venue. The actual course consists of two sections, the second part is only a few tens of meters long. In that part, the farthest flags are larger than normal for visibility. There is a clear open rock terrain that is broken by a couple of felling areas. All tasks can be solved with careful map reading. The first part of the course has a hill section of about 600 m, of which a small steepest part is one-way. However, no tasks have been assigned to that section.

According to the weather forecast, the lighting conditions will be uniformly gray, so the flags should stand out well despite the distance.

COVID-19 naturally brings its own challenges to race arrangements. Fortunately, TrailO is not a contact sport, so it is certainly possible to avoid them and keep distances.

Good luck!

Juha Hiirsalmi

Event Adviser