Latvian Championship Relay (08-09-2013)

In team Auseklis 1 with Mikus Purins and Edgars Lakis. Mikus did OK and Edgars brilliant and I was sent on the last leg as number 2, far behind OK Aluksne and Lauri Sild, but only seconds in front of OK Azimuts (Vilius Aleliunas) and 2.5min ahead of Mezmalas MTB (Andris Jubelis).
I knew that I will not match Vilius speed and let him go after second control, my only hope would be him making a mistake.
My first mistakewas made to second control in its area - 20 seconds gone. Mistake also to 3rd control where I went straight and lost about half a minute. This was also much worse forking than my closest follower had. I continued in an OK pace without big problems until the 9th leg which was basically yesterdays' leg backwards. I knew which is the best choice and went on to execute it. As I had not run there yesterday, I found it hard to see where is a clearing and where is a forest. I became slow and just ran in not-so-precise direction. I think that I lost about 50 seconds there.
No surprise it was when I noticed Andris Jubelis catching up with me. I gathered my strenght and kept in front until 12th control where I got confused for some seconds and let Andris take the lead. I had regained lead to 14th and 15th with better orienteering and slightly faster pace.
At that point part of me was already thinking about the last leg and finish, another part was already celebrating bronze medal, but no part of me kept the direction towards meadow. Yeah.
When I finally found this huge feature, I already saw Andris running to the last control. It was over then.
4th place second year in a row and no medals for IK Auseklis elite team for last 3 years at least.