WOC 2018 Guide

The World Orienteering Championships (WOC) in Latvia are fast approaching!

We have 4 Canadian athletes competing this year: Jennifer MacKeigan, Will Critchley, Damian Konotopetz, and Graeme Rennie. Both Damian and Will have competed at several WOCs previously while this is the first year for Jen and Graeme. Raphael Ferrand is returning as the coach. Nevin French is the team manager. There are 345 athletes from over 49 countries competing! 

The schedule is:

Date	Race	Race Time (local time)(7 hours ahead of Eastern time, 10 hours ahead of Pacific time)	Canadian Runners
Saturday, August 4th	Sprint Qualification	9:00 – 11:30 (2:00 - 4:30 Eastern, 23:00-01:30 Pacific the day before)	Jennifer MacKeigan, Damian Konotopetz, Graeme Rennie
Saturday, August 4th	Sprint Final	15:00-17:00 (8:00-10:00 Eastern, 5:00 - 7:00 Pacific)	TBD (top 15 from each qualification heat race)
Sunday, August 5th	Sprint Relay	17:00-18:10 (10:00-11:10 Eastern, 7:00-8:10 Pacific)	No Canadian team
Monday, August 6th	Rest Day
Tuesday, August 7th	Middle Distance	12:00-17:30 (5:00-10:30 Eastern, 2:00 - 7:30 Pacific)	Jennifer MacKeigan, Damian Konotopetz
Wednesday, August 8	Rest Day
Thursday, August 9th	Relay	14:00-18:00 (7:00-11:00 Eastern, 4:00 - 8:00 Pacific)	Will Critchley, Damian Konotopetz, Graeme Rennie (running order TBD)
Friday, August 10th	Rest Day
Saturday, August 11th	Long Distance	12:00-18:00 (5:00 - 11:00 Eastern, 2:00 - 8:00 Pacific)	Jennifer MacKeigan, Will Critchley

The sprint races are in Riga--Latvia's capital city. The forest races are 50 minutes away in Sigulda. 

You can follow along during the week on the event website. They will have live results, blog, TV, and GPS tracking (purchase may be required for live TV and GPS--it looks like it is 20 euros for the entire championships or 6 euros per race to use LiveOrienteering.com's services). You can also find old maps and the terrain description for each of the event on the event website. 

It's always an exciting week to see the top orienteers around the world compete! The organizers have a hashtag #WOC2018Latvia, and have a Twitter and Facebook account. World of O often has excellent coverage as well. And of course, follow along on Orienteering Canada's social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) and cheer on our athletes. Go Canada go!