The Games are Open!

Strangely, the opening ceremony of this year's World Championships took place today, after the first two races of the event had already been put in the books. The teams all gathered in the park at the WOC "village", i.e. the university campus in Miskolc. After a short flag parade there were some speeches and short entertainment, a local Hungarian dance and a chime concert!

Earlier in the day, the team went out on the model map for the Relay (and Middle Final). The terrain in this area is more rough. Larger areas of the forest have limited visibility and there is more undergrowth and dead trees on the ground. Those of us not running the Sprint on Thursday will go out to the Middle Final and watch the races on site. There will be TV coverage and big screen at the arena. Can the great French Middle distance maestro, Thierry Gueorgiou, win his 6th gold medal in the Middle distance at WOC?

For 5 EUR you can follow the TV coverage from the Middle Final from your computer back home in Canada! The Middle Final is bundled together with the Sprint, so the access code you purchase can be used for that race as well. The women's race starts at 9:30 am local time, followed later by the men's race. The men's race should be wrapped up at around 1:15 pm local time.