Team Canada

2012

2012-01-16T00:05:00.000-08:00

The 2011 season had some highs and lows for me, and a little bit too much getting sick around important times. I focused quite a bit on running this year, training with a small running group. I ran a pb for 10k in April, finally breaking 40 minutes. Also, I ran the Knee Knacker (a 30 mile race with >2000m of climb). This in a Vancouver trail running classic I have always wanted to run, but since it is in the middle of the summer I am often not around. It was definitely a high to edge out a win in this race. The Canadians up in the Yukon showed that I was a bit rusty with my technical orienteering, particularly the first race, but I felt I got a better handle on it as the week went on. Then came the travel to Europe, where I unfortunately caught a bug. I missed a good deal of my chance for last minute races/prep because of this. The highs were making two finals, and really enjoying the sprint final (even if I do not really have fast twitch legs). Additionally of course, the collective effort of the women's team coming together for a great result at the relay. The lows were missing out on the long final and struggling to feel I could run aggressively in the difficult lumpy terrain.

My goal for this year is to try to figure out how to keep my imune system happier. I also need to work on my strength/imbalances, as I have been somewhat injured over the past few months. Since it is coming up soon, I am looking forward to the sprint training camp in Victoria this year (and being healthy at that too, which I was not last year). Being involved in the organizing and mapping, I know how different the terrain is compared to Vancouver and I look forward to the open rock and interesting vegetation.

Another goal is to do more race analysis, which is something I used to be more disciplined in doing. I remember always sitting down after a race and drawing out my route. I even have old journals from orienteering travels where I wrote pages about each race. However, these days my psychology has been getting the better of me. I get complacent if the race is good, or too angry to look at it if the race is bad. There is not necessarily something to be learnt in all your mistakes - sometimes mistakes just happen - but at the very least you can work through the race, and hopefully move towards the next one with a clearer head. I think I have still been managing to work through some of these things in my head, spending hours obsessing over how a race went poorly and trash talking myself, but it may not be as effective as a structured race analysis (which should hopefully involve less negativity).

In the spirit of this, I want to see some of your race analysis (non-hpp, since I know you can post yours here if you want)! If you are willing to let me read over anything you have written about a race (hopefully including a route on a map), then I would be interested in seeing it - and posting the map and some hopefully constructive comments on the blog (after your approval). Depending on the response, will see how many I can look at - as in only the first few (send to: lc[my last name][AT]gmail[DOT]com).

"Ça chauffe" au sud de la France!

2012-01-06T05:02:00.000-08:00

It seems to be a running joke with orienteers that we always stop off at home just long enough to get most of the stink out of our o-clothing before throwing it all back in a suitcase again and heading off to the next competition or training. I took this to a new level when I got back to St Etienne from my vacation frolicing almost exactly 12hrs before le Pole's planned departure for a training camp in the south of France. All I had time to do was dig my New Year's party dress out of my bag and throw in a couple clean jersey's and my bathing suit (hehe no just kidding, it's not quite that warm down here).

After a short 4.5hrs of driving (it seemed to be interminably long for the French but they have obviously never attempted the infamous weekend where you drive 12hrs one way just to run 3 races in 2 days and then drive back) and a couple training breaks we arrived in the cute little village of Nant where we would be staying for the next 5 days.

The program is a tough one; all that really happens is that you wake up in the morning, you eat, then train, then eat again, take a much needed siesta, go out training again, freeze your bum off in the bus while waiting for night to fall, venture out into the dark for the third training of the day, come back to the accommodation to eat, and then straight to bed to recuperate for tomorrow's training. Usually I really enjoy these training camps because I feel really hardcore putting all those hours of orienteering on attackpoint, but 2012 threw me a bit of a curveball in the form of a gastro intestinal sickness thingymadooer. I made it through the first training on Wednesday with the hope that maybe it was just something I ate that didn't go down well, but when all I could force down was a meager plate of plain pasta I chose to be the smart/wimpy athlete and crawled into bed to sleep away the afternoon.

The next morning I took enough Paracetemol to keep my head from spinning - I know, I know, everyone says that you should never train when you're sick, but I wasn't about to waste away in bed while everyone else was out training on super beautiful and technical terrain. I was going to crawl if I had to! - and hopped into the bus ready to experience this marvelous terrain... too bad the weather decided to turn into 110km/h winds and really cold rain.

We ran a Finnish relay which is a team of a girl and guy who each do two loops. It actually would've been pretty cool if my legs hadn't felt completely drained, if we hadn't had to hide behind bushes so as not to be blown away, and if I had been able to concentrate enough to not get completely lost. I did, however, eventually find all my controls! Although, good thing Celestin started his last loop before I got back because I was out there for awhile.

Here's a picture that I took of the type of terrain we were running through, followed by the map excerpt of the area. Not so much of a piece of cake, eh?

I won't go into detail about the afternoon training but let's just say that it wasn't the most enjoyable hour of my life... in a weak moment afterwards I had even convinced myself that I should head back to St Etienne with other injured athletes. Thank goodness Olivier, the coach, managed to bring me around even if was just to toodle around on the maps to get in the technical aspect of the trainings.

And toodling I did! It's amazing what a little sunshine and an amazing map can do to your health! There was one section that they called the labyrinth ...

... and getting through it involved scaling cliffs, crawling through tunnels of dark green, and fighting off the minotaur to get to the control ;) While the others were busy getting lost while doing intervals in the tricky terrain, I was kept busy getting lost while jogging around and capturing the beautiful scenery.

And as the 4th day of our training camp comes to a close we still have a sprint distance in Millau to look forward to, followed by a middle and long. Even though I still feel like a new born Bambi when I run, there's still a chance that I could pull out some good runs this weekend. As my dad always tells me... it's not over until the fat lady sings!

And as a side note I just wanted to wish everyone a very happy 2012!.. with good health and lots of quality training hours to come!

Applications for 2012 High Performance Program Athlete & Volunteer Positions Now Open!

2011-12-09T08:06:00.000-08:00

The High Performance Committee (HPC) is pleased to announce that applications are now being accepted for the Canadian High Performance Program. We are now accepting applications for athletes, as well as technical and non-technical volunteer positions.

ATHLETES

The 2012 version of the COF’s Athletes’ handbook is now on-line at www.orienteering.ca/team-canada/high-performance.

The Athletes’ Handbook outlines the process to become an athlete member of the COF’s High Performance Program in 2012. This HPP is designed to support Canada’s current and up-and-coming elite orienteers. Canadian athletes who are competitive in the 21-34 or 17-20 categories are eligible to become members of the HPP.

The Athletes’ Handbook also outlines the selection process for the 2012 Junior World Orienteering Championships, World Orienteering Championships, World University Orienteering Championships and World Cup races. The handbook also includes information and the application for the 2012 Rising Stars awards.

There were 29 HPP members in 2011. How many will there be in 2012? The application deadline is December 31, 2011!

VOLUNTEERS

Over the last few seasons, the High Performance Program (HPP) has made some big strides as a result of the hard work of the athletes and initiatives by the High Performance Committee. The success of our initiatives have not only contributed to a better racing and training environment for Canada’s best orienteers, but have also created an enhanced vibrancy in the entire Canadian orienteering community, and in particularly has given younger athletes a growing number of role models and reasons to be excited about the sport.

As the HPP continues to look forward, one of the most important steps is to provide better support for our national athletes at major international competitions, and therefore we are looking to fill following roles.

· Team Coach for World University Orienteering Championships

· Administration Team Positions

For full job description and application details, please click here! Volunteers are considered members of the HPP!

ABOUT THE HIGH PERFORMANCE COMMITTEE

The HPP is administered by the COF’s High Performance Committee. The HPC consists of a variety of Canadian orienteers from coast to coast, who are dedicated to enhancing and expanding elite orienteering in Canada. The HPC works throughout the year on various projects aimed at strengthening resources and support for our elite orienteers during the training season, providing sufficient support at international events, and promoting elite orienteering within the Canadian orienteering community and beyond. Some examples of HPC achievements for 2011 are the fundraising events (such as the HPP relay at the 2011 COC's), the Canada Cup Elite Series, and arena organization at major events.

Canada’s High Performance Program
Talent + Dedication + Support → Performance = Growth

Team Canada Live Chat - November 7, 2011 - 8PM EST

2011-11-07T16:40:00.000-08:00

Team Canada Orienteering Chat

Live Chat on this blog Monday Nov 7 with Louise and Will

2011-11-02T21:55:00.000-07:00

Please join Canadian Cup Elite Series Champions Louise Oram of Vancouver and Will Critchley of Edmonton in the first ever Canadian National Team Live Chat on Monday November 7 at 8:00 pm EST. Please join us online to chat with Louise and Will, ask questions about their 2011 season and their training plans that will hopefully lead to an even better 2012.

The chat will be on the Team Canada Blog at http://teamcanadaorienteering.blogspot.com/

Louise Oram (27) is a member of the Greater Vancouver Orienteering Club (GVOC) and has been a member of the national team member since graduating from the junior ranks. She has participated in 6 World Championships including placing 37th in the Sprint Final at the 2011 WOC in France.

Will Critchley (27) from Edmonton (EOOC) and has made a quick rise through the ranks of elite Orienteering in Canada since re-entering the sport in 2009. He made the 2009 World Championships in Hungary, which was followed by 2010 in Norway and 2011 in France in which he placed 38th in the Sprint Final. Will has also been able to undertake the very unique experience of participating in the Park World Tour (PWT) in China, something he hopes to again in 2011.

Nevin French will be hosting this chat. A big thanks to Nevin!

WOC Long Final Report

2011-08-30T03:54:00.000-07:00

After the euphoria of qualifying for the long wore off, reality sunk in: Oh God, I actually have to run the long. I tried to stay calm, telling myself I had already made my goal to qualify and I did know how to orienteer but I was so so nervous the whole morning before the start.

I started with Magnus's last words of advice running through my head: "Take your time to do the first two controls well. It's a really long race to be annoyed all the way through!" Then I turned over my map. The first control looked so tricky! Despite the 375, 45m climb run to the start triangle, I still hadn't decided what what route to take. But good sense won out and I decided to play it safe and ran along the path. You can find the map (and final results) here.

I had a few minor hesitations through the first four controls but I manged to make it through the tricky section relatively unscathed. That made all my training in France seem worthwhile as there is no way I could have done that a year ago!

On the big screen! Photo: Greg Walker

The second half of the race was really just a physical fight. Running up and down ski hills in that heat really cooked my brain and I made a bad mistake on the way to number 12, dropping 9 places. Oops. Lesson learned not to cut corners when you can't think properly! I was running with a few other runners through this section but never really managed to keep up with anyone for very long.

Finally, I made it to the finish, after 1 hour and 56 minutes of running. I was so exhausted. Everyone was coming over and congratulating me on an awesome race, which was a little confusing. I didn't feel amazing out there so I thought they just were saying that for finishing; admittedly, finishing that course did feel like quite the accomplishment! It wasn't till I recovered a bit that I realized the mistakes some of the other women were making. You can relive the drama by watching the our GPS tracks.

Just trying to make it to the finish line! Photo: Adrian Zissos

In the end, I was ecstatic to learn that I'd finished in 33rd, way beyond what I'd dreamed was possible. This WOC everything really came together, with terrain that suited me, having tonnes of supporters there and just having lots more orienteering experience. Then our team's relay result was really the cherry on top: first ever top-half finish for the Canadian women! Such an awesome week and now I'm really excited for the future!

First WOC Experience and Definitely Not My Last

2011-08-29T11:01:00.000-07:00

I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity to race in my first World Orienteering Championships in Savoie, France. Although the Long was not the race I particularly wanted a start in, I made the most out of it. Of course I would have preferred to have a start in the Sprint or even the Middle before the Long but it just didn’t work out for me. I did not know what to expect but I knew it would be really tough to qualify or even crack the top 20. Saturday August 13^th came and my first WOC race the Long Distance Qualifier dawned on me. The first start was at 13:10 and I started at 13:28, so I knew it was going to be hot, hot, hot even though the start was around 1400m above sea level. I knew that there was going to be a fair bit of open meadow running based on the course notes and in order for the winning times to be accurate which made me feel better about the race knowing that there would be some less technical parts with faster running. One of the things coach Magnus was stressing was compass, compass, compass, always look at your compass. It probably was the best advice he could have given myself and the team. Before my start I was constantly telling myself compass, compass, compass and to take it easy and safe to the first control which I did. I nailed the first control and got into a nice rhythm early on and kept it going until the course got into the more tricky terrain just over half way through. By this time I was getting tired after the huge climb going to control #7 which turned out not to be the best route choice. This is when the small mistakes started to happen and my concentration was fading. I was having trouble judging the distance in the forest and I consistently was not going far enough. On my way to control eight I was stung by 3 to 4 wasps or bees which was irritating but my adrenalin was so high that I did not notice it much at all. Immediately after it happened the first thing besides some profanity was I hope Thierry is not coming on this exact route haha. Later in the course Olle Boström the young Swedish star came blowing by me heading into control #10 only to stop shortly after and ask me if I was looking for code 72. This stunned me because someone of that calibre asking me where I am going is unusual. I could maybe see someone else asking me but a Swede, no way. Anyways I told him I was looking for 72 and we both continued on to the same control and he soon left me in his dust. By the time I reached the finish chute I was physically and mentally wrecked but somehow managed to find some more energy since there were so many people cheering. Nothing can compare to the feeling of running down that finish chute despite how exhausted I was. I managed to make it back with no major mistakes which was one of my big goals. I felt like I had a pretty good race but it did not show in the results like I thought it would. I think I got stuck with one of the hardest heats (Heat B) because if you compare my time to the other heats it should have slotted me into about 26^th or 28^th place not 30^th which I ended up in my heat. I guess it does not really matter because I would not have made the final either way. Thierry Gueorgiou crushed everyone in my heat winning by over six minutes. I guess you could say I was 34 minutes behind the World Champion that is about the only claim to fame I have. Besides taking a bad route on the long leg and losing some time here and there I think the race went as well as it could have for me considering my training and running speed. Of course I could have had a faster race with some better route choices and fewer mistakes but can’t we all say that. I will remember my first World Orienteering Championships in Savoir, France, 2011 for the rest of my life.

Check out and follow my new personal blog too: http://damiankonotopetz.blogspot.com/

Damian

Team Photos

2011-08-27T10:14:00.000-07:00

Directly after the relay we gathered in the baking sun to take some team photos! After that we rushed down to town to get ready for the banquet.

Training Video

2011-08-26T05:54:00.000-07:00

Here is a video we shot on our second day in France. We weren't able to upload it with the slow internet at the hotel.

The quality isn't great, but hopefully it gives those who weren't there an idea of what the terrain is like. Enjoy!

Post-WOC Pre-WOC

2011-08-25T00:40:00.000-07:00

As a pre-face to this entry, I'd like to touch on the distinct lack of athlete reports from their respective finals and relays from WOC week. Unfortunately, the internet at our hotel was highly suspect, and the finals days proved to be very long and very hot. Over the next few weeks and as the season winds down, we will gradually be posting our individual experiences from these races, from the much talked about Sprint qualification to Carol's epic marathon of a long final, to the madness that was the women's relay. There is much coming down the pipeline!

----------------

Although the initial fervour of this year's WOC is slowly dwindling (though some debates rage on - see AttackPoint), its time to start looking forward again. And, it just so happens that NEXT year's WOC is a scant 150 km for this year's WOC!

Carol and I stuck around for a week after France to do some relaxing, some sightseeing, and a little bit of orienteering. Our initial plan of visiting the Olympic Museum in Lausanne was thwarted once we determined exactly where the embargoed zone was, so we turned a hard left and headed back into France, the Jura area.

Now, to be clear, a large portion of these days have involved lying in the sun (or shade) on the beach of some lake. Naps occurred. Some food with questionable health qualities were consumed.

But, it has not been all lying around. We have "climbed" Mt. Jura, a massive 1500 metre peak which the tourist office says would take around 4:40. We made it up and down in 1:45.

Tomorrow, I head back to England to get in on the City Race action, with Sheffield and Lincoln next weekend, and London the weekend after. Carol is going to head to Switzerland and will likely do some more WOC specific training.

Finally, although the first two days we stayed in a pleasant and cheap hostel, last night we found some cheap as free accommodation. Can you guess where we are staying based on the picture below?

Goal Accomplished!

2011-08-22T09:00:00.000-07:00

A very intense WOC week is over! This year our team was battling with sickness, stress, crammed accommodations, crazy logistics, broken internet and to top it all off the weather Gods threw in a relentless heatwave...

But our athletes produced great results all week and we felt better and better as we approached the last day of the program with the Relay on Saturday. We talked already from the first day that our big goal this year (and coming years) was to produce one top-16 result (top-half if less than 32 participants) and we knew that our best chance was the Women's Relay.

Carol Ross took the first leg and her job was to repeat her great relay performance from last year and that's exactly what she did! She kept mistakes to a minimum in the very difficult terrain and came in with a pack of runners only 7:30 down from the leaders.

Emily Kemp went out on the second leg with a focus on her own run and to let the other teams make mistakes. She put in one of the best performances in Canadian WOC history, losing only 40 seconds on the lead, moving the team up to 11th position and giving Louise Oram a huge gap down to the chasing teams.

Louise's job was again to focus on a clean run and she did that brilliantly. She did not stress and always made sure she was on track and she was able to bring the team home with a first ever top-half result for the Canadian Women at WOC. A fantastic team effort!

This means that Team Canada is starting to get on track for Sport Canada Elite funding, which would mean a huge step forward for the High Performance Program. We need a few more years of these type of results, but it is clearly within reach!

Thanks for your support this year and keep checking this blog for team photos later this week (and perhaps one or two pictures from the banquet and party as well)!

Inconveniencing the Coaches

2011-08-16T22:48:00.000-07:00

Magnus and Andrea commented last night that with Team Canada doing so well and making every final this year, its really screwing with their France vacation. Instead of going off and sightseeing while the rest of the orienteering elite were fighting it out in the finals, they had to go and look after athletes racing the finals. What. A. Pain.

He was kidding, of course.

And, today its Carol's turn to battle it out, in her first final in the Long. She is slated to start at 12:43 France time, which is 8 hours ahead of my time zone of MST, so.... translate it to your own accordingly. As usual, live results, GPS tracking, and possibly some video feed is available at http://live.woc2011.fr/index.php?id=long-distance.

Go Carol!

37 and 38

2011-08-16T13:21:00.000-07:00

Louise Oram finished 37th in the sprint final today and Will Critchley finished 38th.

Today was the first final event so it was nice to finally see the big screen at the arena today. The start and finish were also right there. Here's a pic of Will on the screen just before his start. And you can see Will in the bottom right of the pic.

On the right side

2011-08-15T03:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I tried to make sure I was on the right side of the top 15 cut-off, no matter what heat I ended up in... all I could think of when I hit the road to punch the last control and run down the finish chute was that I did not want to end up on the wrong side by 16 seconds again. This resulted in some 'lovely' finish chute pictures, which I will not post here ;). Instead here is a picture of me approaching control number 6:

Quasi race/route description:
I started in the last set of three, with only one German girl two minutes behind. I had a good first two controls (some hesitation leaving the trail to the 1st), and read ahead to have some idea what to do on the longer legs when I came out to the trail to go around to control 3. I hesitated once in the woods near 3 when I suddenly found myself in an area with several other women (it was a forked control for the different heats but all three controls were near each other). I then went the right direction to the next control, but misread the contours in the circle and botched the attack. By then I was running with Niamh from the Irish team and a Serbian. I took the route along the smaller trail slightly to the left of the line towards 5. Niamh went right in the last depression, but the Serbian stayed with me. I got to the control slightly before the others. After that it was out to the clearing and crawling up the hill to 6, where a several photographers were positioned. I took the straighter route hopping from small trail to trail towards control 8; I had wondered if it was better to go north to the trail when initially looking at the leg but opted for the more aggressive route.

Long Qualification - 7th time lucky!

2011-08-14T01:18:00.000-07:00

After running seven qualifiers in previous years, I qualified for my first WOC final yesterday! I was cautiously optimistic about my chances this year. I definitely felt I was best prepared this year, especially after living in France and having a chance to experience the terrain ahead of time. At the same time, I was really, really nervous before starting yesterday. But my training, the motivation from my nervousness and a bit of luck all came together yesterday and I finished in 14th position in my heat!

The start at WOC is absolutely calm. When the start official took his hand off my shoulder, I just tried to focus on Magnus's parting advice to pay attention to my compass all the time. The start of our course was in the meadows and quite easy, which helped me get into the feeling of racing. Then came the long route choice. I made a very poor choice here but fortunately it wasn't fatal and I learned what not to do in the final!

From control five on we were in the tricky French forests we've been hearing so much about. I was a little scared of the sidehill legs but being cautious paid off here and I made it safely through the forest controls. Here's a photo of me dashing out of the forests towards the finish.

Photo credit: WorldofO.com

The wait at the end was so agonizing as I had no idea if it was good enough. I told my boyfriend I was going to cry no matter what happened! But I made it and I feel so elated and relieved at the same time. The only bad part is that Louise just missed out after such a great run.

Now it's time for to get ready for the middle qualification. The long final will be held on Wednesday, August 17th. You'll be able to follow my little gps dot from the WOC website. Thanks for following along and cheering for us!

Long Qualifier Start Times

2011-08-12T12:51:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow Saturday is the Long Qualifier. This race will be a mix of open, but hilly, meadows and tricky, detailed karst forests. The Canadian Team is prepared and ready to go after several days on the training and model maps. It seems a bit unclear what live coverage will be available for the qualifiers. The best bet is to go through the World of O website. On the start line tomorrow is (local time):

12:00 Carol Ross
12:42 Louise Oram
13:28 Damian Konotopetz
14:16 Will Critchley
14:37 Wil Smith

Update #1: Team Choices

2011-08-12T03:39:00.001-07:00

We have arrived safely in France and have several good days of training behind us. The team is in good spirits and we are optimistic about the challenging terrain. With the first races coming soon, we have many blog posts in the works with maps and videos of the French terrain.

In the mean time, Robbie and Patrick kept busy on a rest day ahead of the Middle Quali on Sunday. The day started out with a good sleep-in, followed by a nice morning jog along Lake Bourget and breakfast on the balcony. We decided to give you a behind-the-scenes look at our accommodations here in Aix-les-Bains. Here are some of the daily choices we are faced with as part of our daily grind in the south of France.

Lake Bourget at dusk

The instant coffee dilemma

Which shoes to wear?

Left or right?

Top or bottom?

To shave or not to shave?

Style or recovery?

Robbie and Patrick

Bohemia 5-day - Czech out those rocks!

2011-08-08T07:10:00.000-07:00

Each time I come to a new place to compete, I resoundingly declare it couldn’t get any crazier than that. First it was Sweden with and O-Ringen with 16,000 people competing in the forest at once. Then it was the London City Race, running around downtown London, dodging tourists and discovering all the side streets and passageways of London. Then it was the middle of Beijing, island hopping at the Ruins of Yuanmingyuan. However, the Czech Republic definitely seems to have taken the crazy cake.

I got into Prague on Thursday afternoon to race the last three days of the Bohemia 5-day event in Novy Bor, GVOC member Andrea Balakova’s hometown. It’s a cute place, lovely scenery, nice houses, and cheap ice cream and beer available with these simple tokens that cost about $1.15 (Andrea says its actually a 20 crown piece, I’ll stick with ‘ice cream token’).

Friday morning was my first race and first experience in this sandstone terrain. After two days of long distances, this race was a shorter one, with M21 Elite doing 3.8k with just under 400 metres of climb. This race was touted as being in the ‘city of rocks’. I scoffed since I’ve seen rocks before. How hard can it be? Well, I picked up my map and ran towards the start triangle, and HOLY CRAP LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THOSE ROCKS. Any initial plans I made in those first 30 seconds went completely out the window after discovering that little cliffs on the map were 4-5 metres high, controls were located on single rock features that had measures like 8 metres, and controls were located in narrow passages between huge rock faces. And you think all of those things would be pretty distinct, but there’s also several thousand of them. Everywhere. And there were people looking around every rock, having discussions, shouting to each other, it was O-Ringen madness in a very small area.

Oddly enough, during stage 4, I discovered that I would rather be in the rocks than in flat forest. It was a brief respite from the craziness, but I made more mistakes looking for my arch-nemesis, the cup depression, than I did looking for a 2.3 metre boulder in a sea of boulders.

There’s no doubt that doing all 5-days of this event would have been absolutely physically brutal. The Men’s Elite did a total of around 40k and 1700 metres of climb. Magnus marched in for Stage 4 and 5, finished second in H35 on 4 and de-throning the “Russian Rocket” in the final stage. That guy was so far ahead only one other person made the 1 hour cut-off to participate in the chase start. Andrea managed to get through all 5-days alive , and actually pulled out her best performance on Day 5 in D21A, climbing from 11^th to 8^th in the pursuit start and having the 4^th fastest time on the stage. I believe she’s going to propose next year it become a 12-day event, because then she’d definitely win.

The Bohemia 5-day happens every second year, and I have been assured there are more rocks. Many more rocks. Results, the elite maps, and route gadget are all available at http://ok-bor.cz/bohemia2011/?lang=en

Cover Girl

2011-07-26T20:38:00.001-07:00

Not to be outdone by Graeme, Kendra is also on the front cover of the local paper. She appeared
on the cover of the hardcopy version of today's Whitehorse Star.

Cover Boy

2011-07-18T23:10:00.000-07:00

This picture of Graeme Rennie finishing today's Western Canadian Champs sprint appeared on the cover of today's Yukon News.

Louise Oram wins Vancouver's 30 mile KneeKnacker trail race

2011-07-10T08:47:00.000-07:00

Louise Oram, national team member, was the fastest female in the yesterday's Knee Knacker - a 30 mile trail race in North Vancouver. This trail run is a challenging 30-mile foot race along the Baden-Powell Centennial Trail from Horseshoe Bay to Deep Cove. Runners climb 8,000 feet and descend another 8,300 feet in the process.

This was Louise's first ultra-distance trail race. She finished in 5:41:19, 5 seconds ahead of #2. Here's a video of the sprint to the finish. You can read her race report on her training log.

And a shout out to orienteer, Brian May, of Salmon Arm who was 6th overall in the race - in a time of 5:39:11. Not bad for an old guy :-) Brian told me that he was very happy not to get run down by Louise as he was fading fast towards the end.

Team Canada - JWOC 2011 - Wejherowo, Poland

2011-07-08T14:02:00.001-07:00

Front Row: Molly, Emily, Carol-Coach, Tori, Randy-Team Leader

Back Row: Lee, Graeme, Kendra, Graham, Emily

JWOC Relay

2011-07-08T08:13:00.000-07:00

The relay was the final event for JWOC 2011. Graeme led the Canadian men's team in the mass start followed by Graham and Lee. For the first time ever, Canada had a women's team in the relay with Tori in the mass start followed by Kendra and Emily K.

Team France's Emilie Backschneider led a mixed France/Canada team with Emily R. the second runner and Molly finishing.

The women relay was won by the Swedish 1st team and it was a huge surprise for the home town Polish Team taking the men's relay gold medal.

Emily R. just after the hand-off to Molly at the exchange.

Molly screaming down the bridge in the finish chute.

Tori handing off to Kendra.

Kendra finishing the 2nd map handing off to Emily.

Emily K. finishing the 3rd leg.

Graeme handing Graham the second map.

Graham sending Lee off on the final loop.

Lee finishing off JWOC 2011 for Team Canada.

JWOC 2011 Relay Gold Medal Team - Sweden

Team Poland - JWOC Relay Gold Medalists

It's going to be a party in Poland tonight!!

Orienteering comes in threes

2011-07-08T00:28:00.000-07:00

July 7, 2011 will go down in orientering history as the first time that a triple gold was awarded for an IOF event. Three men tied for first in the middle distance final all with a time of 25:43. Not to be outdone the young Danish star, Ida bobach, won her third JWOC gold of the 2011 championships. She now has won more JWOC medals than any other woman in history.

The orienteering three concept as applied to our Canadian juniors is that we had three competitors in the same classes. Three men in the C final and three women in the B final. Overall the Canadians had a better day and you can see details on this elsewhere in the blog. Emily Kemp # 523 came in 22 in the A final!

If anything we can all say "we were there" on the day orienteering history was made.

JWOC Middle Final

2011-07-07T23:39:00.000-07:00

Team Canada had good results at the Middle Final with Emily K. finishing 22nd out of 60 starts in the women's A, Emily R. 45th, Kendra 57th and Tori 65th out of 70 starts in the women's B.

Graeme and Lee finished very strongly at 6th and 9th, and Graham 36th out of 41 starts in the men's C Final.

For full results and splits go to: www.jwoc2011.pl

Photos from the Middle Final:

Emily R. spiking the spectator control

Graeme burning up the finish chute.

Tori cruising through the spectator control.

Lee charging through the finish chute.

Graham sprinting into the final stretch of the finish.

Emily K. emptying the tank in the finish chute.

Kendra driving out of the spectator control.

JWOC Middle Qualifier

2011-07-06T14:35:00.000-07:00

Below are members of Team Canada punching the GO control in the Middle Qualifier race:

JWOC Tales

2011-07-05T23:44:00.000-07:00

Kendra arrived at control #18 to find four other JWOC runners searching for the flag in the swampy re-entrant. Although not mapped as green woods, the re-entrant was quite thick with limited visibility.

Kendra attacked the control from above by climbing the side of the spur. The other JWOC runners saw that she had punched the control and immediately followed. Kendra lead the train through the remaining two controls and finish shoot, a distance of 750 metres. Now that's an example of a competitive spirit!!

Kendra at the Go control.

Kendra driving to the finish line.

The JWOC Competition Arena and the last 150 metres of the long Long finish shoot.

JWOC Long

2011-07-05T14:24:00.000-07:00

It was a great day for Emily K. in the long event finishing 13th overall with a time of 1:03:48 on the 7.7 km course. Demark's orienteering superstar, Ida Bobach, won her second gold in as many events with a time of 55:23. There were 12 women who finished between 1:03:43 and 104:56.

Emily resting at the finish line.

Graeme cheering on Emily in the finish chute.

Emily's route.

Women's Results.

JWOC Sprint

2011-07-03T22:13:00.000-07:00

It was a surprise win by France’s Lucus Basset in the men’s sprint with a time of 15:07 on the 2.9 km course. Exceptionally, a Norwegian was the only Scandinavian to finish in the top ten in tenth place.

Ida Bobach of Denmark is a repeat gold medalist on the women’s 2.5 km course with a time of 14:29 with fellow teammate Emma Klingenberg just 2 seconds behind her. It is expected that Bobach will deliver strong performances at the long and middle events as well.

For Team Canada, Emily K. had her best sprint finishing at JWOC with at time of 16:37 to put her in 38^th place out of 130 women.

Graeme had an excellent race and finished 106^th out of 157. He was unfortunately caught in the trap set between controls 13 and 14 on the men’s course. It cost him about 25 seconds.

Tove Alexandersson of Sweden lost a spot on the podium, and potentially the gold medal, in the same trap between controls 16 and 17 on the women’s course.

For all the results including splits go to: www.jwoc2011.pl

Today is the long event with the men running 11.0 km with 410 metres of climb and 23 controls. The expected winning time is 74 minutes. The women are running 7.7 km, 285 metres of climb and 20 controls. The winning time for the women should be about 57 minutes. Both the men’s and women’s courses will have butterfly loops which forks the runners thus preventing runners following each other.

JWOC 2011 Men's Sprint Map

Graeme's course.

Emily K's course.

Women's Finish Board with Emily in 38th position.

Let the Races Begin!!

2011-07-02T21:14:00.000-07:00

JWOC 2011 starts today with the sprint race in the town of Lebork 30 km west of Wejherowo. Our athletes are ready and they are pumped!! The men's race will be 2.9 km with 35 metres of climb and 23 controls. The women's course will be 2.5 km with 30 metres of climb and 22 controls. The courses are set in mostly urban terrain with about 15% of the race in forest.

First start is at 14:00 hours Wejherowo time. Live results can be found at: www.JWOC2011.pl

GO CANADA!!!

Team Canada in the Official Opening Parade being lead by Angilika from Wejherowo.

The Wejherowo young people's choir greeting us in the town square.

Team Canada singing along to the JWOC 2011 Theme Song.

Update from Poland #5

2011-07-01T22:15:00.001-07:00

Today was our last day of training before the festivities begin with the JWOC official opening in the town square of Wejherowo, Poland on Saturday evening. The races start with the sprint on Sunday in the village of Lebork.

This year will mark the first time that we have five women representing Canada in the competition.

JWOC 2011 will be Emily R.'s second competition. Coach Carol has been encouraging our juniors to keep their heads up and trust their compass'.

Emily K. is the long-timer on the women's team with Poland being her 4th JWOC in as many years...and she still has one more to go. Emily is charging into one of the dastardly pits on the side of a hill.

Tori's first JWOC training has been an incredible experience. She has focused on perfecting her orienteering skills. She has enjoyed meeting the friendly locals.

Molly, our youngest member of the women's team, has been honing her navigational skills. Her steady and thoughtful orienteering style will likely pay huge dividends here in Poland.

Kendra, our third rookie on the team, will use her incredible fitness from XC skiing to charge up these Polish hills. You can hear her fellow Yukoner's cheering her on all the way over here in Wejherowo!!

Update from Poland #4

2011-07-01T13:09:00.000-07:00

Today was our first opportunity to run in a hilly section of Polish terrain on 1:10000. It was fabulous!!! The features, spurs and re-entrants, seemed to make more sense. This map was the best orienteering of the week.

Below is a video of Emily running the leg from 3 to 4.

Update from Poland #3

2011-06-30T08:32:00.000-07:00

Day 3 of training for Team Canada was more route-choice selection in the hilly, wide open Polish forests on a 1:15000 map. The challenge is to decide which would be the best route; a straight line through the large and numerous re-entrants or around on top of the ridges. Trails are often an option but usually involve additional climb.

And there are significant challenges inside the control circle too. In spite of the excellent visibility, efficient control taking is difficult. Control locations are typically on the side of hills and the features somewhat obscure. Boulders are often very small (less than 1 metre), pits are tucked into the side of hills and swamps are little more than mud holes.

It is absolutely beautiful orienteering in Poland, but it ain’t easy. A cool head and a good plan are requisites to success here in Wejherowo (pronounced “veyherovo”)!!!

Photos from bottom to top:

1 Training map for Day 3 (1:15000 C=5m)

2 Lee and Graham wading through a swamp at #31

3 Graham looking for the boulder at control #32

4 Graeme charging over the spur to #33

5 A typical re-entrant in the moraine topography

6 Coach Carol, Emily and Kendra doing some route analysis

7 Dinner in Gdansk to finish off the day

Update from Poland #2

2011-06-28T23:09:00.000-07:00

Team Canada and Team USA joined forces today for a star-relay training session on the Glodowko map. Both members of the two person teams were required to complete all threeloops. The terrain was quite technical and thus challenging. Both teams spent the afternoon relaxing on the white sand beaches of the Baltic Sea and eating fresh local cherries.

Update #1 from Poland

2011-06-27T23:15:00.000-07:00

The Canadian National Junior Team has arrived in Wejherowo, Poland for a week of training in preparation of the 2011 Junior World Orienteering Champs from July 2 to 8.

Our Polish hosts are extremely friendly and accommodating. The food has been traditional Polish fare with lunch as the main meal of the day. Our accommodation is very comfortable complete with laundry...an orienteering necessity.

For most of the team, yesterday was our first foray into the Polish terrain. The forests here are wide open with excellent visibility. The topography is mostly rolling hills with large re-entrants. There are virtually no rock features in the terrain, thus most control features on the training maps are tucked into small re-entrants or pits, many on the sides of the hills. Staying in contact with the map is difficult, recovery is daunting.

There is much to do and see in the Gdansk region. We have planned an afternoon on the white sand beaches of the Baltic Sea on the Hel peninsula after training this morning.

Picture #1 JWOC team sewing bee with Graeme in charge of quality control.
Picture #2 Accommodation at JWOC 2011

submitted by Randy Kemp, Team Leader

Off to JWOC!

2011-06-22T10:59:00.001-07:00

And we’re off! All the members that headed up north to Whitehorse for the HPP training centre are off to JWOC today. JWOC is in the north of Poland in Rumia Wejherowo, which is near Gdansk. Once we arrive, we have a week of training to get used to the terrain. We will meet Emily and Molly Kemp, and our fearless team leaders Randy Kemp and Carol Ross (and the honorable sidekick David Ross). Then our first race, the sprint, is on July 3^rd! You can follow along and find results at: http://www.jwoc2011.pl/

We’ve all been really fortunate for the hard work of Brent Langbakk, Ross Burnett, and Afan Jones. Their trainings have had us running and thinking hard as well as occasionally humbling us. I’m certainly excited for the Canadian Orienteering Championships here this summer! The terrain is both technical and physical, which should made the races exciting and challenging.

Overall, the training centre has been a great success. It’s different, but awesome, to have so many motivated training partners all pushing each other. Plus, it’s difficult to be lazy with all the peer pressure (in the best way possible). We’ve also gotten to explore, climb rocks and mountains, and some of the HPP crew biked some legs for a relay between Haines Junction in the Yukon to Haines in Alaska (a total for 240km).

We hope you follow along on this blog for our adventures in Poland, and see some of you in Whitehorse for the COCs!

HPP Members Eric Kemp, Graeme Rennie, Kendra Murray, Lee Hawkings, Tori Owen, Emily Ross and Graham Ereaux at the top of Mt. Lorne with friends. Photo credit: Graham Ereaux.

Edmonton Club holds HPP Fundraiser

2011-06-12T18:56:00.001-07:00

Wednesday, June 8, the Edmonton Overlanders Orienteering Club held an HPP fundraiser as part of their usual Wednesday night event series. All proceeds from the event were donated to the High Performance Fund!

The event was held a little different than usual, featuring a new event, called "The Escape". Thanks to Greg Yarkie's fantastic "City Cup" record keeping, we had a list of most of the regular club member's average Time per Kilometre from the events the club has held so far this year. Those numbers were multiplied by the planned distance for the Wednesday event, and everyone was given an estimated time. I (Will Critchley), was fortunate enough to have the fastest average TPK of the season, so the question to be answered on the night was, "Can you stay away"? The difference in estimated time was the amount of head start everyone got, ranging from 37 minutes to 7 seconds! Cross the finish line before I do, and you're a winner!

Not only was this a great event for me, as it was added motivation to hammer out a really good run (though the intense race situation did cause mistakes), I hope the rest of the club members that participated enjoyed chasing and being chased by each other. It is amazing practice to try to orienteer under the pressure of someone on your tail and to keep cool under the prospect of catching someone else.

Thanks to the club and all its members for the participating, and for the generous donations!

And, the big question, who managed to escape?

High fives go out to Angela Pearson and Einar Viddal. Looks like I need to get training for next year's hunt.

-- Head camera footage (mistakes and all) here: http://contour.com/stories/mill-creek-south-wednesday-night-orienteering

Whitehorse Star Coverage

2011-06-10T12:50:00.001-07:00

Here is a Whitehorse Star article on the Yukon Middle Distance Champs and the National Summer Training Centre

Great new map and a great race!

2011-06-09T23:32:00.000-07:00

Hi all, as part ouf our oodles of orienteering training up here (in Whitehorse) we had the Yukon Champs middle distance race on Wensday night. For anyone planning on coming up here for the COC's (Which everyone should!) it was on the same map as the sprint, though a different part of course. I absolutely loved the terrain. It's a great mix of very open fast running white, with large clearings and even sandunes. The 2.5 M contour interval which is smaller than what we are used to in this part of the world was a great new challange as well. Overall this was a pretty good race for me and in the end I tied Lee Hawkins exactly at 29:37 for first place. followed closely by Graham Ereaux and the whole gang up here training. It's absolutely wonderful to have a high level of competition like this on a regular basis. It was a fun race and the perfect way to top of a good day of climbing and adventuring up here in whitehorse!
Here is the Route Gadget map
-Graeme Rennie

Media Coverage from Yukon Sprint Champs

2011-06-03T14:39:00.001-07:00

Here is today's Yukon News coverage of this week's Yukon Sprint Champs with a nice quote from Graeme Rennie of GVOC who is in Whitehorse for the National Summer Training Centre.

Who said training can't be fun?

2011-06-03T10:27:00.000-07:00

There are two things I learned yesterday; the mountains around Whitehorse are amazing, and climbing them is even more so.

On our “day off” training, Graeme Rennie, Tori Owen and I decided to hit up the trails and climb Caribou Mountain, a 6,500 foot peak just outside of Carcross. Starting at the crack of ten, we drove the scenic rout down to the trail head (every road around Whitehorse is a scenic road) and immediately started hiking up a fairly steep trail.

Only a short while in, we emerged above tree line to some spectacular panoramic views that I’m sure will rival anything Edmond Hillary saw on the first ascent of Mt. Everest.....keeping in mind I’m an east coast kid and anything bigger then an ant hill seems pretty spectacular in my eyes. It was at the first peak of 6,000 feet that we decided to attempt a human sculpture of an orienteering symbol. I'll let you use your imagination for this one....

Shorter then expected, we reached the chilly but spectacular summit. Staying just long enough to down a chocolate bar, (which is ten times better on the top of a mountain just so you know) we attempted to glissade back down the mountain. A combination of soft snow and cold hands halted this idea so we resorted for the less fun, but still pretty amazing decent back down the trail.

While sitting in a cold northern lake after the hike, we all agreed on two things; just because it’s fun doesn’t mean it isn’t training, and two, we all want do this a thousand more times....

Sore legs for an amazing day and a great view = a worthy compromise

-Graham Ereaux

Greetings from the land of the midnight sun!

2011-06-01T20:55:00.000-07:00

Hey ALL! I have been meaning to write an update as the first visiting athlete of the first year of the Whitehorse training center for a while, but with all that has been going on up here, here I am with over a month pasted and just writing this! What a month it has been! What they say about people coming up north and never wanting to go home is certainly true. Up here I have gone on my first mountain bike ride… on the edge of an earth embankment that went directly into the Yukon River after about 60ft…a little nerve racking at first. I also have gotten in some skiing (in t-shirts no less!), road biking (first time out we biked from Skagway (elevation 15ft) over the ‘summit’ (elevation 3292ft) BIG HILL!), lots of swimming in ice cold waters, hiking, trail runs and OH YEA OOODLES OF ORIENTEERING!

There are organized training sessions four times a week doing everything from intensity to VERY technical training exercises. The coaches up here Brent, Afen and Ross always come up with some kind of exercise to keep us coming back day after day! I have also become involved in volunteering as a coach while I’m here. So I also coach younger kids four times a week. Coaching plus training means a lot of new maps! It was a bit of a shock to my system when I first arrived to suddenly have a couple new orienteering maps on a daily basis. It was also a shock (a wonderful one) to have people to train with again. I still remember the feeling of my first sprint training session with the team. It involved pie plates being dropped as controls and the last person picking it up (a self cleaning orienteering route!). I couldn’t stop smiling at the end of the night. It was so encouraging to have other people to push you harder and just to hang around.

After about two weeks of unemployment I got two jobs in the same day, but don’t fret it’s not like I am over worked as I still work only about 20 hours a week. The first job I got through the help of Leo the dad of the family I am billeting with and it is bussing once a week at a local truck stop called Trails North. The second job that I work at during the week is at the local knitting store called Knit Now. Both have been very accommodating to my desire to not work a lot… just enough to pay for gas so that I can drive to my adventures! The long and short of it is I am truly living the life; I eat, sleep, train, occasionally knit J and clean some tables. I can’t believe that I lucked out and this was the year that the Whitehorse training center started! Anyone who was thinking about coming up to COC’s and is still undecided, stop thinking and come! I unfortunately I have to face reality and go back to Kelowna and do my nursing practicum and will not be able to make it BUT I have pre run some of the courses and although sworn to secrecy I can still tell you it will be a blast!

First year HPP member -Tori Owen

(oh and as school is out my academic brain has gone into hibernate so please excuse the writing mistakes!)

Will and Erica take over Elite Series lead!

2011-05-26T21:57:00.000-07:00

As the tradition continues, Sage Stomp XXVI took place outside of Kamloops on the May long weekend. The Gardens Creek ranch was again the host, just like in 2003 for the Canadian Championships and in 2007 for the Western Canadian Championships. The area offers fast orienteering in open forests and meadows. Lots of climb and a good amount of rock and cliffs.

All three races were part of the Canada Cup Elite Series and a strong field was on the start line in M21E and W21E. The program started with the Sprint on Saturday at noon and the elite runners started late in a seeded Red Group. Spectator controls and race announcing created an exciting arena experience. Will Critchley, EOOC, with a smooth and controlled race took over the lead at the 4th control and never let go with a dominating performance. Graeme Rennie, GVOC's hope at JWOC in Poland, took second place, but was over a minute behind Will. The pre-race favorite Thomas Nipen, GVOC, struggled to find map contact and flow throughout the race and had to settle for 3rd place, another 28 seconds behind Graeme. On the Womens' side, Louise Oram decided to run M21E at Sage Stomp, which opened up W21E to some very close competition. Erica Lay, VICO, took advantage of the situation and won the sprint ahead of Marie-Cat Bruno and Abbigail May, both SAGE runners.

The Middle distance followed after a few hours of rest and this time Thomas Nipen was not going to be denied. He made a mistake on the 1st control and again on the 2nd, but turned on the afterburner from this point on and eventually took over the lead at the 16th control, holding on to claim victory 13 seconds ahead of Mike Smith, ONB. Will Critchley finished 3rd, only 26 seconds behind Thomas in a close race. Katherine Scheck, YOA, clearly had the fastest legs in W21E, winning with over 2 minutes despite dropping about 1:30 on mistakes. Andrea Balakova, GVOC, and Marie-Cat Bruno were keeping similar pace throughout the course, with Andrea edging out Marie-Cat with a 1 second margin.

The weather was great for the Long distance on Sunday morning with cool and damp conditions. Abbigail May kept a pace that no one could match. She took over the lead on the 2.6 km long leg to control 5 and extended her lead from there to win with a 5 minute margin. Erica Lay in a clear second place ahead of Andrea Balakova in 3rd. For the men, Thomas Nipen was forced to watch from the sidelines with a sore toe. Will Critchley started early and was the first runner to finish the course in a time of 83:35. The only runner to challenge Will was Mike Smith, who kept the same pace in the forest, but ended up just behind in 84:00. Brian May, SAGE, had a steady and strong run and finished 3rd, about 6 minutes behind Will and Mike.

Links to all results, splits and RouteGadget can be found on the GVOC website, and the here are the current standings in the Canada Cup Elite Series.

2011 Rising Stars Award Winners Announced

2011-05-16T13:57:00.000-07:00

The Canadian Orienteering Federations’ High Performance Committee has established the Rising Stars Award to support Canada’s most promising young orienteers in their quest for top international results. In 2011 the award is funded 50% by individual donations and 50% by the COF. Award recipients are chosen by a selection committee based equally on:

Financial need
Past performance
Future potential
Contribution to the growth of orienteering in Canada

The growing depth of talent in Canadian Orienteering resulted in an extremely close competition for both the men & the women, and highlighting the contribution of these young athletes to the orienteering community across Canada. The selection committee found the women’s competition was too close to declare an outright winner and a tie was declared. Each winner will receive $1000 to assist with their training and racing expenses.

2011 Rising Stars Winners
Carol Ross: Moncton, NB (GVOC)
Emily Kemp: Ottawa, Ontario (OOC)
Robbie Anderson: Ottawa, Ontario (OOC)

Carol Ross
Carol Ross is the current Canadian Champion in all three disciplines (Sprint, Middle and Long). She has represented Canada at the Junior World Orienteering Championships (JWOC) between 2005 and 2008, and has since graduated to the World Championships (WOC) in 2009 – 2010 as well as the World University Games 2010. Her excellent first-leg run at WOC helped Canada to 16th place result. Carol is a graduate student in Mathematics, currently living in France to prepare for WOC 2011. Carol’s contributions to the orienteering community are outstanding. These include being course planner at the 2010 Barebones middle distance WRE event, coaching at the Sass Peepre Junior Camps in 2008 & 2009, attending JWOC 2011 as a volunteer coach, and as organizer of the 2010 Silent Auction HPP fundraiser and a frequent contributor to the HPP blog.

Emily Kemp
Racing at the elite level since the age of 14, Emily Kemp has quickly become one of North America’s best athletes. In 2010 she finished 13th at JWOC, Canada’s highest ever place. Attending university in France and training with the French elite team (known as “le Pole”), she will race not only at JWOC in Poland but also at her first of hopefully many World Championships later this year. Her enthusiasm, good nature, maturity, and dedication are an inspiration to us all – and her youth and generousness acts as a particular inspiration for young athletes across the country.

Robbie Anderson
At the young age of twenty-three Robbie Anderson quickly has made a name for himself in the top ranks of Canadian orienteering in by winning the 2010 National Championships in Sprint, placing second in the Middle, and fourth in the Long distance in his hometown of Ottawa. He built on these results with a 3rd place overall at the US Champs and second at the Golden Leaf Orienteering Festival (GLOF). Robbie represented Canada at the World University Games and also an accomplished ski-orienteer, with the best results of the North American men at the 2011 World Ski-Orienteering Championships in Sweden. Robbie has organized a number of events and training sessions and is a mentor and role model for many of the younger runners in Ottawa’s strong youth program. Robbie recently graduated from Carlton University with High Distinction, and will be attending graduate school in Gothenburg, Sweden in the fall of 2011.

Selection Committee
The selection was made by a panel consisting of: Kitty Jones (Alberta), Hans Fransson (Ontario), and Magnus Johansson (BC). They were unanimous in expressing how difficult the choice was given the depth and quality of all the applications. The competition was extremely close, thanks to the wonderful combinations of talent, promise, and involvement in the community.
One of the committee members summed up their work by saying: “I was very glad to do this. I felt a lot of pride about the applicants and HPP in general, seeing the details of the applications. It was especially awesome to read about their various contributions to the community. I bet more people would be excited about the HPP if they heard about the contributions to O as well as the athletic goals and accomplishments.”

High Performance Committee
This project is the result of work by the COF High Performance Committee. The HPC works to support Canada’s High Performance athletes through numerous projects and initiatives:

Fundraising events such as the Silent Auction and the upcoming Sprint Relay at the COCs in Whitehorse
Providing training opportunities such as the recent HPP Training Camp in Hamilton and the National Summer Training Centre in Whitehorse
Raising the profile of elite orienteering through, for example, implementing the red group at major competitions, introducing the Canada Cup Elite Series, and maintaining a blog of HPP activities

Get Involved
You can get involved with Canada’s HPP by showing your support in many ways:

Recruit new members – encourage young athletes from your club with great potential to strive to become part of the HPP.
Provide training and competitions: organize local events so that athletes can learn and practice on maps as much as possible. Mentor young athletes.
Follow the National Team Blog
Offer encouragement: post your comments to the national team blog and to the athletes’ profile pages on the COF website.
Hold a fund raising event in your club
Donate time: contribute your time to work on COF projects that will impact orienteering across Canada.
Donate funds: donations to the COF can be targeted to the HPP. All donations to the COF over $10 will get a charitable donation tax receipt.

And finally
The COF is delighted with the performance of the entire HPP and would like to thank all of the athletes for their dedication, commitment, and involvement in the Canadian Orienteering community.

Talent + Dedication + Support --> Performance + Growth
Canadian Orienteering Federation High Performance Program

National Summer Training Centre Kicks Off

2011-05-01T22:20:00.000-07:00

The National Summer Training Centre in Whitehorse is underway. We have already had a couple of practices. From here on, the training starts in earnest with 4 organized sessions per week. Tori Owen from FWOC arrived a few days ago and joined local HPP athletes Jennifer MacKeigan, Kendra Murray, Kerstin Burnett and Lee Hawkings for today's session, so it is starting to feel like something bigger already. Looking forward to others arriving in the next few weeks. You can check out our sessions here.

Tour du Marteau - Hamilton Training Camp

2011-04-25T07:55:00.000-07:00

Three days with three training sessions a day at this year's "Tour du Marteau" (aka HPP training camp in the Hamilton area).

The camp consisted of a fast and furious day with a control picking and 'fog' O exercise at the very fast "Mount" Nemo map and the day finished with a 1km, 130m trail run in Hamilton (2.5 times up the escarpment). Wil Critchley set the World Record in 5.17

Saturday was the hilly day in the Dundas Valley including a corridor orienteering session on the new map made by Magnus J. last autumn. A route choice race and then 5 repeats of a 80m climb up a hill and orienteer down exercise to finish things off. Over 1000m of climbing.

yesterday were a few middle distance races at the flat and rocky (WOC relevant according to Tero)Rocky Ridge. Wil Smith went on the last leg of the Tour with a strong lead although Robbie A. put in an impressive 36 minutes for the final 6km course of the weekend.

Thanks to Patrick Saile for doing most of the work.

Maps and session details

by Mike Wadd

Canada Cup Elite Series - Update

2011-04-17T22:42:00.000-07:00

The first ever Canada Cup Elite Series race took place back in February at the Vancouver Sprint Camp. The WRE at the South Surrey Bike Park offered intense navigation and route choice in a labyrinth network of trails. Map and courses are here on RouteGadget. GVOC jumped out to an early lead in the series thanks to dominating performances by Thomas Nipen and Louise Oram. Both were well ahead of the competition and claimed the $150 winner's cheques. Here are the current standings!

The next race on the Elite Series program is Sage Stomp XVI on May 21-22. This event will bring competitors back to the site of the 2003 Canadian Championships, the Gardens Creek Ranch, a short drive west of Kamloops. The program will offer a Sprint, Middle and Long. All races count towards selection to the team that will represent Canada at the World Championships in France in August. Here you can find info and registration for Sage Stomp XVI.

The Canada Cup program will then continue with the races in the Yukon during COC week-long festival. The rest of the program is still to be confirmed, but we hope to have the Elite Series Final at the Ontario Champs in Ottawa in October. Stay tuned!

Ski Woc Part 2

2011-03-25T10:08:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was the mixed sprint relay, we both refused to put on a wig so we cheered on the New Zealanders and Americans from the sidelines instead. :P Today was a rest day, so we went for an easy ski on the ski trails right outside of our cabin. Tomorrow is the Long distance, our skis are waxed and ready and we will go to bed early and hope for good weather in the morning.

Here are some more pictures from our time so far in Tanndalen.

The two mustach-eers.

Our shared cabin in the woods

Canadian wax bench

Surrounding Mountains

Canadians in Portugal

2011-03-23T12:44:00.000-07:00

Like many other orienteers, I headed to Portugal in March along with my family and Emily Kemp to kick start the orienteering season. The Portugal Orienteering Meeting (POM) has made a name for itself as the winter orienteering destination, promising fast technical orienteering while Northern Europe is still snowed in.

POM is attended nearly 3000 people including top orienteers such as Simone Niggli, Minna Kauppi, Theirry Gueorgiou and others. It's actually a great chance to be able to compete against the best.

The terrain in the Alentejano region makes for really fun orienteering. It's super fast and open cork forest with lots of technical rock detail to keep you on your toes! We also had a night sprint in the town of Portalegre; I love sprints in European towns with small twisty streets! One day the event was at the famous Alter Real horse stables and another day the finish was at a winery! All my maps are available on my DOMA.

After POM we moved to UNESCO world heritage site Evora for a second weekend of races at the Meeting Internacional de Arraiolos. There we had an amazing long distance course, with super technical rocky green controls followed by a nearly 4km long leg!

So our trip to Portugal was a great start to the season with fast running, technical orienteering, catching up with o friends and generally getting psyched for all the races coming up!

Here are a few photos from our trip:

This photo of Emily Ross doing the trail-o gives you an idea of the terrain.

Emily Kemp sampling the local specialties. Notice the 8kg buckets of olives for sale below the table!

The Canadian girls working our French connections and posing with Thierry Gueorgiou.

How's that for a finish chute? Splash!

Update from the World Ski-Orienteering Championships

2011-03-23T09:48:00.000-07:00

Ski WOC 2011 Part 1
written by Robbie Anderson

Nick and I arrived in Tanndalen Sweden late Sunday night after a long (8hr) drive from Stockholm. We were fortunate to be able to get a shared accommodation with the New Zealand team in a nice cabin about 20min away from the event center. The alternative would have been sleeping on a gym floor with about 20 other skiers. :)

On Monday morning we explored the model event trails, which were a bit of an eye-opener. Most of the trail system is on a large broad hillside, with 75% of the trails being narrow ski-doo made trails. Most of the skiing is double-pole technique, and the experienced ski-orienteers definitely have a big advantage. There is a lot of tough climbing and a lot of scary downhills where good control is extremely important. We also learned that there is good opportunity for cutting through the forest, however this means that it can be hard to determine what is a marked trail is and what isn't.

Tuesday was the Sprint race. The weather in the morning was really nice, but about halfway through the start window, the weather turned quite ugly. Tanndalen is situated in a long valley, where the wind can be quite strong, and in combination with heavy snowfall makes visibility quite difficult. Luckily for me, the weather opened up right before my start, and it was nice and sunny. Nick had to deal with the difficult weather for the second half of his race. Aside from than the weather, the sprint courses were really well set, with lots of short legs in an intricate trail network. The race was a lot of fun, and we were quite happy with our results. For myself, I was happy to have been the first North American in my first International Ski-O race. Nick had a very solid race, and it is even more impressive when you consider that he is racing with a fractured rib!

Today was the middle distance. Last night we learned that because of the forecast of heavy snowfall (and the subsequent re-grooming of the whole trail network) the courses were going to be shortened, and were going to consist of two loops with a map exchange. The weather turned out to be quite difficult again, with heavy snowfall and winds throughout the day. This meant that many trails were wind-swept with snow, and very hard to see. On the other hand, the base of snow had frozen over, meaning that cutting through the forest was often a good option, provided that it was going downhill. At times, it was easiest to ignore the mess of trails that could hardly be seen, and cut through the woods towards large features such as cabins. I had another good race today, and came in to the finish sitting in 11th place. Unfortunately pretty much everyone who finished after me had a faster time, pushing me down to 45th place again :). Nick had a really good first half of his race, but faded a bit in the second half as he struggled with visibility with his glasses.

Nick and I are both having a great time racing here, and the atmosphere is really special. It has been a good learning experience, and we hope to bring home a new enthusiasm for ski orienteering. Hopefully, you guys at home can get excited about the interesting maps and courses, and that we see more Canadians doing ski-o in the near future. Next year there will be a ski-O world cup in Lake Tahoe, USA, which should be amazing. Also, it would be nice to see Canadian relay teams at Ski Woc in 2013! :)

If you want to read about our races in a bit more detail you can check out our training logs on attackpoint:
Robbie: http://www.attackpoint.org/log.jsp/user_1390
Nick: http://www.attackpoint.org/log.jsp/user_1810

That's all for now,
Robbie Anderson & Nick Duca

Ski WOC Stadium

Robbie racing in the sprint

Robbie racing in the middle under heavy snowfall

Bridge into the stadium

Wax room with Americans

Finnish waxing corner (Crazy!)

Nick providing comic relief

Nick racing in the sprint

Nick on the big screen

HPP Winter Happenings

2011-03-04T09:50:00.000-08:00

Yes, Canadian orienteers typically face a major obstacle in their orienteering training for 6 months of the year: winter. Nevertheless, things have happened, and thanks to my good friend google I've been able to track come up with some updates and results from some of the HPP members. One would assume that if any of them had exciting things going on that I didn't mention, they'd probably post it themselves *cough* *cough*.

- Vancouver Sprint Camp: This event probably deserved an entire post on its own, but I'll give a quick update. The camp happened this year Feb. 11-13, under pretty rainy skies. With 10 activities in 2 & 1/2 days, there was no shortage of orienteering opportunities. The big highlight this year was the WRE at the Surrey Bike Park, which was a baffling array of singletrack trails and thick forest in between. I just yesterday dug a thorn from my hand that I got during this race. There were also presentations from Gold Medal Olympic rowers, and on using a headcam as part of training. You can see results, photos, and the video from the headcam at http://www.orienteeringbc.ca/sprint/. All in all I think the entire weekend was viewed favourably by all participants, despite the occasionally atrocious weather. I was especially pleased to meet the Hong Kong crew that traveled over for the camp, and would like to propose that to give Vancouver a break next year, we switch it just a bit further west. Just a bit west and south of the international date line.

Other events/results:

- Ottawa Winter Triathlon: Robbie Anderson and Jon Torrance laced up the skates/boots/shoes for this one, and Skate-Ski-Run race on the Rideau Canal. Robbie missed the 5000m world record time by a scant 40 seconds, though its also possible that everybody ran the wrong way and did only 3.7k. A full report is on Robbie's blog on Attackpoint

- Prince George Iceman: If there were a gold medal for the most number of times winning the silver medal in a single race, it'd go to Mike Smith in the PG Iceman. Take the above activities, but then add a second run, AND a swim, and you've got a pretty epic race. Results are available here.

- World Student Games, Turkey: Colin Abbott raced for Canada in February in Turkey for the World Student Games, and was the top Canadian in the 15k pursuit. From what I hear the snow and course were not entirely amazing, and a large portion of the team was sick a lot of the time. Apparently Turkey is gearing up for an Olympics bid, though!

- Canada Winter Games, Halifax: Colin, Dahria Beatty, and myself were in Halifax for the Cross Country Skiing Event of Canada Winter Games. Dahria has some awesome results, placing in the top 10 in all of the races, and Colin cracking out a top 15 and qualifying 10th in the sprint. They were both skiing for the Yukon. I, being too old to race, was there being a guide for a blind skier. I daresay I was more nervous than most of the athletes simply because my biggest fear was causing another person to smash into a tree.

Upcoming Events:

- World Ski-O Championships, Sweden: Robbie & Nick Duca are heading to Sweden in a few weeks for the world Ski-o Championships in Tanndalen. I'm not quite sure what sort of updates we'll be able to get from the event (aside from the inevitable blog post), but the website is

at http://www.skiwoc2011.com.

- Portugal O-Meeting: The most popular early season event around, Carol Ross, Emily Ross (heck, all the Ross') and Emily Kemp are heading there as we speak to get in a week of hopefully awesome weather and some sweet orienteering. There are four races, including a WRE on day 3. The website says "Live on March 5 at 8AM", so for any night owls, you may be able to follow the race here: http://www.gd4caminhos.com. This will undoubtedly lead to a blog update, so stay tuned for that.

Well, that's all I (and Google) can think of for the time being.