Orienteering Canada Announces Pre-selection of Athletes for World Orienteering Championships

Orienteering Canada is delighted to announce that Emily Kemp and Louise Oram have been pre-selected to represent Canada at the World Orienteering Championships, to be held in Trentino, Italy from July 5th to 12th, 2014. Kemp and Oram will both run in the middle and long distance races.

This year significant changes to the format of the World Orienteering Championships (WOC) have eliminated qualification races for the middle and long distance events.  The number of start slots per nation is determined based on results for the previous two WOC years. Canada’s women have 2 start slots for the middle and long distance races. Kemp and Oram will take both of these slots.

“With the reduced number of starting slots this year, I’m honoured to be pre-selected for both the middle and long races”, said Louise Oram. “It will be interesting to see how the removal of qualification races impacts my races. Less time in the terrain could be negative, but fewer important racing ahead of time to make me nervous and tire out my body and brain could be positive”.

“Both Louise and Emily have trained hard, and this shows in their previous results”, said Alison Price, chairperson of the High Performance Committee. “We’re very excited to have two such outstanding athletes representing Canada on the world stage.”

Selection for the rest of Team Canada will take place at the Alpe Adria Cup, to be held from June 13-19, 2014 in Trentino, Italy.

You can follow the progress of Team Canada on this blog, on Facebook, and on Twitter @OrienteeringCAN.

Please join us in congratulating Louise and Emily!

Canada Cup Update ~ Lots to report with 5 races to go!

With 5 races to go, it's still anyone's guess as to who will win the Canada Cup Elite Series.... here are the latest standings after the 3 Canada Cup races held in conjunction with the BC Orienteering Championships.

In the women's standings, the 2011 Canada Cup Elite Series champion Louise Oram is back on top after winning the sprint, middle, and long races at the BC Champs. Carol Ross ran some excellent races to boost her in to second place, with Pam James holding on to third. Kerstin Burnett, Emily Kemp, and Molly Kemp are not far behind, which means all could change in these last few races...

In the men's category, Adam Woods won his first Canada Cup race in the middle distance on Whistler Mountain. Adam ran a confident race, commenting afterwards that his race was "excellent", and he enjoyed the challenge of the open, rocky terrain. In terms of standings, Graeme Rennie and Brian May both ran excellent races to close the gap to leader Will Critchley and second place Eric Kemp, but Will and Eric are still far enough ahead it's unlikely either Graeme or Brian can take over the lead in these last few events.

Since this was the BC Champs, the Greater Vancouver Orienteering Club (GVOC) amassed a good amount of points to have a comfortable cushion over Ottawa Orienteering Club (OOC). However, with all 3 sprint, middle, and long distance races at the Ontario Champs next weekend being designated Canada Cup races, OOC does have the opportunity to make up the difference. Can GVOC hang on to the "Best Club in Canada" crown for a second year??

The final Canada Cup races for 2012 are:
October 6-7: Ontario Orienteering Champs - sprint, middle, long
October 14: New Brunswick Champs - long
October 28: Blue Nose Classic, Nova Scotia

It's still anyone's Cup to win... stay tuned!

Louise comes 33rd in the Long Distance!

Louise finishing up the long distance.

Louise Oram ran a good race today, coming in 33rd, which her best long distance final result at WOC to date! Way to go Louise!

Louise with Samantha Saeger of Team USA. Who would believe they'd just run a long distance race?! Looking sharp, ladies!

More great photos of today's event by Adrian!

Here's Louise talking about her race:



In the women's race, Simone Niggli was determined not to have a repeat of the middle final (where she navigated part way to the wrong control!), and won the race by 1.5 minutes over middle distance champion Minna Kauppi of Finland. Annika Billstam of Sweden finished in 3rd. Also, special mention to Samantha Saeger of Team USA, who finished in 40th place. Way to go Sam! You can view the final results, and also the GPS tracks (see middle final post for some tips!). 

In the men's race, favourite Olav Lundanes of Norway took gold, almost 3 minutes ahead of local favourite Matthias Merz. Edgars Bertuks, middle distance champion from Latvia, took the bronze medal. Edgars has had a fantastic WOC this year; his best WOC result to date was a 9th place in the middle distance back in 2008. You can view his athlete profile to check out his results to date. Way to go Edgars! Take a moment to view the final results and GPS tracks.

Tomorrow is another rest day, with the relay on Saturday. Running in the relay for Team Canada is Will Critchley, Patrick Goeres, and Robbie Anderson. The running order will be decided tomorrow, so stay tuned!

Louise qualifies for middle final!

By only 3 seconds, Louise won herself a place in tomorrow's middle final. Andrea interviewed Louise directly after her race.

After a 'jerky' race, Louise finished in a time of 44:17. Here are the results, and the maps for heat A (Louise ran in this heat), heat B, and heat C.

In the men's race, Damian, Eric, and Jeff all had good races, but not enough to make top 15 in their heats. Here are some comments from each of the guys:

Jeff: "Today’s course relied a lot on compass bearings, which aren’t my biggest strength. The first 3 controls were great, but big mistakes on 4 and 5. I didn’t refocus well after that, and just stumbled along...The race reinforced the things that I really need to work on."

Eric: "I was as ready as I could have been at the start of the race. I did tons of preparation to be ready for this race, but right after starting there were a couple things that happened that I hadn’t prepared for, so I was off my game quite soon into race. I did the best that I could have done today."

Damian: "I made some mistakes in this race. I found it tricky to find the controls in the dark green. You could be very close to a control yet still miss it. I had some good legs; first 3 controls were good, but had problems with my forth control."

Map from men's heat B

Here are the results and map for heat A (Eric ran in this heat), results and map for heat B (Damian ran this heat), and results and map for heat C (Jeff ran this heat). 

Thierry Gueorgiou, current world champion and middle master, won his heat. Only 3 days ago did he decide he was fit enough to race in the middle distance, as he's been fighting an injury. Since he's current world champion he automatically got a spot in the qualifications, so didn't take away the chance from a team mate. When interviewed after the race, he explained that even though he was injured, he wasn't concerned about his fitness, because he's been pool running ~ 78 times in the last 45 days! As a side note, Emily Kemp joined Thierry for some pool running sessions as she battled tendinitis over the past few weeks. Note to all up and coming orienteers ~ no excuses not to train when you're injured... try pool running!


In the women's race, Simone Niggli won her heat, and is favourite to take the middle gold. These will be exciting races to watch!

The middle final takes place tomorrow, Tuesday. Louise is starting at 12:01 Swiss time. (that's 6am EST and 3am PST). You can follow online with GPS tracking, TV coverage (cost ~$4), and results at the official live site, or follow discussions on the World of O and Attackpoint. So set your alarms and prepare to watch some of the best orienteers in the world battle out for gold!

Wednesday is a rest day, then Thursday is the long distance final, where Louise will once again be running for Canada. We'll bring you the details soon.

Go Canada Go!