Relay Results

Unfortunately it was not Canada's day today in the men's relay. Patrick Goeres lead the team off with a strong start, but a problem with 2 controls left him in 29th place and 10 minutes back from the lead pack, but just under 2 minutes in front of Eric Bone of Team USA. Robbie Anderson had a "nervous and unfocused race", losing time here and there. He held on to the 29th place spot, but Boris Granovskiy of Team USA had a solid run, coming in a couple of seconds ahead of Robbie to trade off in 28th place. Will Critchley, Giacomo Barbone (USA), and Fatih Bodur of Turkey started together. It was a nail biting neck and neck race, but Will managed to pull away at control 11, and keep the lead to bring Team Canada in to a 28th place finish; 4 minutes ahead of Team USA and 5 minutes ahead of Team Turkey. You can watch the relay battle via GPS tracks, check out the splits, view the maps, and the full results!

After the race, Robbie commented that he felt the team was "prepared really well for today, but sometimes things just don't click. I was too nervous and unfocused, which led to numerous mistakes. All I can do is learn from my mistakes today and put this experience to prepare better for races down the road." Well said Robbie!

Overall in the men's race, the Czech Republic ran a fantastic race to clinch the gold medal, just 6 seconds ahead of Norway and 11 seconds ahead of Sweden! In the women's race, Switzerland won handily with a 2.5 minute lead over silver medalists Sweden; with Norway scooping the bronze medal. Shout out to Team USA, who had a great race. First leg runner Ali Crocker had an amazing run, passing off to Sandra Lauenstein in 3rd place; only 5 seconds behind first leg winner Sweden! Sandra ran a solid race, passing off to Samantha Saeger in 21st place. Samantha ran hard and brought the team home to a 15th place finish. Nice work ladies!

That concludes the 3 week European World Champs tour. Congratulations to all the athletes for their performances. Canada is proud to have such a great team of dedicated athletes to act as ambassadors for orienteering and Canada at the world championship level. You guys make us proud!

Update #3: 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 18, the 4th public race and a rest day on the WOC program...

Day 5:

Today was the long course, it was a very tiring. We were all extremely tired when we got to the finish, which included a very long and steep uphill finish shoot. We all had a couple of mistakes but we all made it to the finish alive. The course was physically challenging, the terrain was really hilly, with lots of knolls, depressions and many cliffs. The weather was deadly (it was over 30 degrees celsius), it just drains the energy out of you. We all stopped multiple times at some water controls. On the whole course today there were 6 water stations that we all used to our advantages (sometimes they had chocolate there too :). During Magali's course, she fell into a pit today that went over her head and was also stung by a wasp at the same time, so she was on edge for the rest of her course. The maps here, along with the difficulty of the courses are very different then the ones in Canada making it more difficult in general. 

Emma finishing her course

Alix and Darya at the finish waiting for Emma to encourage Emma

July 19, no public race today and it was the long distance final...
Day 6

Today was the rest day for us, so we decided to be tourists. We slept in, which was great. Then we drove around lake Geneva and took some stops at points of interest. It was really fun and at the end we stopped for gelato (very healthy athlete food). It was also the long final for W.O.C. and Louise raced. She placed 33rd which is amazing, CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!

 July 19, last public race today, rest day on the WOC program...
Day 7

Today was our last race day, it is sad but we are also happy to be done racing and to go explore Europe. We all believe that it is the best race that we have done this week. The race was a gunderson/chasing start/pursuit (depending on what you call it), Darya started 59 minutes behind the leader of our category, Alix 96 minutes behind and Emma 100 minutes behind. It was a really fast and nice course of  5.4 km. Almost all of us had a clean race. It was a great way to finish the Swiss 5 days!

Afterwards, we decided to walk around Vevey to see what we could see, we stopped at a massive fork sculpture and also at heaven (Nestle headquarters). 

Posing with a sculpture of Charlie Chaplin in Vevey

This trip to Switzerland was a great success and we have learnt a lot.  Hope to see you at W.C.O.C. and C.O.C.

Thanks
Darya, Emma and Alix :)  

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!

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!

Coach Magnus talks about long final and relay!

Coach Magnus shares his thoughts on the long distance final tomorrow, and the relay on Friday. 


The men's relay team will be Patrick Goeres, Will Critchley, and Robbie Anderson. Running order will be announced later in the week.


In the meantime, be sure to cheer for Louise tomorrow in the long final. Her start time is 11:55am local time (that's 5:55am EST and 2:55am PST), right after Samantha Saeger of Team USA, who starts at 11:52. Prepare to witness the North American battle! Should be an exciting race! You can view the full women's and men's start lists. As ever, live TV and GPS coverage will be available on Thursday, for those who wish to forgo sleep in order to support Louise! Go Louise Go!

Louise 41st in Middle Distance Final!

Louise Oram raced to 41st place today in the middle distance final at the World Orienteering Championships. Louise felt she navigated well today and her route choices were good. However, she executed her routes over cautiously, and had too many hesitations. Overall Louise had only 1 or 2 minutes of errors, but was not aggressive enough to place higher. Louise felt her race was overall better than yesterday, so she's happy and confident going in to Thursday's long distance final.      

Louise catching her breath after the race. Photo credit: Adrian Zissos

At the top end of the results, it was a day of surprises. Women's favourite Simone Niggli made one large mistake, as she navigated to the wrong control (oops!), which left her in 5th place. Minna Kauppi of Finland added a 10th WOC gold medal to her collection today, with 2012 JWOC winner Tove Alexandersson (SWE) proving she can run with the best of them by claiming the silver medal. Tatyaya Riabkina (RUS) scooped up bronze.

In the men's race, favourite Thierry Gueorgiou could only manage 4th place; a mere 30 seconds behind winner Edgars Bertuks (LAT). Edgars goal for this race was to beat his best placing last year, which was 9th... looks like he managed that very well! Valentin Novikov of Russia, and Fabian Hertner of Switzerland rounded off the podium.

If you were able to watch the race live, you can still watch back the men's and women's GPS tracks. Select "from start" from the top of the left panel, then select the athletes you want to view. Press play, and watch the various micro route choices, speeds, and how much a minor hesitation can set up back against the best in the world! It's fun! You can also view the women's and men's results. You can also view Adrian's photos.

Tomorrow is a well deserved rest day, then Thursday is the long distance final. Louise is running for Canada in the long final. Her start time is 11:55am local time, right after Samantha Saeger of Team USA, who starts at 11:52. Prepare to witness the North American battle! Should be an exciting race! You can view the full women's and men's start lists. As ever, live TV and GPS coverage will be available on Thursday, for those who wish to forgo sleep in order to support Louise! We'll have some thoughts from Louise and Coach Magnus on the long distance race tomorrow, along with the relay team selection. Stay tuned!

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 :)