Announcing the 2012 WOC Men's Relay Team!

After 3 weeks of hard racing, ups, downs, and a bronze medal, we've come to the final race in the 3 week European World Championship tour ~ the WOC relay. Running for Team Canada is Patrick, Will, and Robbie. Magnus announces the running order in the video!

We asked Robbie, Will, and Patrick how they are feeling before tomorrow's big finale. Here's what they had to say:

Robbie: Feeling quite confident in this type of terrain after the long qualifier. Looking forward to a fast and furious race, and "Canucking" as many teams as possible.

Will: I'm expecting somewhat scrappier terrain than the last time I raced. Since the course is relatively short with many controls, I expect more straight routes rather than longer trail runs. My goal is to beat everyone, of course.

Patrick:I'm getting really excited for the relay and the nerves are starting to set in. I am fully rested and recharged and looking forward to fighting for a top spot with Robbie and Will!

We hope that "Canucking" becomes a (positive) well used orienteering term after tomorrow!

There are 36 teams starting the men's relay at 1:30pm local time (that's 4:30am PST or 7:30am EST). According to the bulletin, some teams will have GPS tracking, but probably not Canada or the US :(  You can follow the live results, TV, and so on at the live centre. You can view the full start list of teams here. Special mention to Team USA ~ Eric Bone, Boris Granovskiy, and Giacomo Barbone. We wish you guys the best of luck for the race, but we still hope to beat you!

Canada has no women's team this year, but good luck to Team USA ~ Ali Crocker, Sandra Lauenstein, and Samantha Saeger. The women start at 11:30am (that's 2:30am PST or 5:30am EST). Check out the full women's start list. 

Thierry Gueorgiou is running the second leg for the French team. He has a terrible record with relays ~ in 2008 he got stung by a bee on the tongue and had to pull out, and in 2009 Martin Johansson of Sweden got a stick in his leg, so Thierry, Anders Nordberg, and Michal Smola stopped to help him. Last year he beat the odds and won gold with team mates Phillippe Adamski and Francois Gonon. This team are running together again this year; can they make it gold for a second year? The Swiss team are also looking strong, and you can never count out those Scandinavians!

On the women's side, the Swedish team are looking particularly strong, with Switzerland, Russia, and Denmark fielding one or two strong runners. It'll be a tight race!

We'll bring you the relay round up tomorrow!

Update #1: WOC impressions by Alix, Darya and Emma

Emma, Alix, and Darya are juniors from the Foothill Wanderers Orienteering Club in Calgary, AB. They are participating in the WOC public races as well as watching the WOC races and cheering on Team Canada. It’s their first time orienteering in Europe. Tagging along with them are former national team members Magali Robert and Pam James. We asked Darya, Emma and Alix to provide us with their impressions of WOC 2012 and of orienteering at a big European event.

July 14, it's the WOC sprint final day and Emma, Alex and Darya has just arrived in Lausanne...

Day 1
 

Today we arrived in Switzerland after an 11 hour flight, via Toronto. At Lausanne, we went straight to the W.O.C. sprint final. While watching, we saw one of our coaches, Patrick, racing. We got to see him bolt through the spectator control and the finish chute. It was very exciting and fascinating. He came in 36th, he was 2min 22sec behind the winner. We were all astounded at how many loud fans from all the world were here to see this race. There is nothing like this in Canada. We learnt that if you want to win a medal in the male sprint, your name should be "Matthias", because that was the first name of all the male medalists today.
We hope that our jet leg doesn't negatively influence us tomorrow during our sprint. We are so excited to be here and for this great opportunity!!!!!
 

Darya, Alix and Emma :)

July 15, it's the first day of the public races and the WOC long distance qualification

Day 2
 

Today we went to the sprint (1st public race), it was at the university of Lausanne. We all had very good runs with a few mistakes, but we were all extremely happy with our races. In our category (Damen 16) of 42 girls, Darya came in 22nd, Emma in 33rd and Alix in 34th. After our races we watched the W.O.C. long qualifier, everyone looked REALLY tired when they were coming down the finish shoot. We would be too after running around 12ish Km. We think that it is safe to say that we are glad that we don't have to qualify for our races!
 

Darya, Alix and Emma :)