Finish training camp

While JWOC won't be in Finland for another year, a number of the Canadians from Jukola took the opportunity to explore relevant terrain.  The second Jukola was over a group of us packed up and took off to Tampere for the night before driving north to the accommodation.  I am actually rather surprised that we managed to all fit into the car - three over-six-foot boys, two others and all their baggage for the summer, but we managed!

The first training was Monday afternoon, and goodness did I need that map walk.  The terrain was rather flat, and there were hundreds of boulders, many of which unmapped as mapping them all would result in huge black blobs on the map.  This definitely confused me at first (and indeed, continued to confuse me for the second day as well!).

Welcome to boulder land!

Day two found us on a 1:15 000 scale.  All the little details from day one were made even more challenging to read - for those competing next year: bring a magnifying glass!  In the afternoon we switched back to 1:10 000, and for the first time I felt like I really had flow through the controls and was able to simplify to the right extent.

A snippet of forest

On the third day we started out with intervals on some of the gorgeous trails around our accommodation.  In the afternoon we did some compass/corridor work.  One thing is for certain: in Finland the mosquitoes will keep you moving.  At one point, I lost where I was but was unable to stop for any length of time and find myself again unless I wanted to be eaten alive by the 'friendly' insects.

While finding where I was, I discovered a large
 mine under the 'fin5!'

The last day found us running a relay session in the morning and a sprint session in the afternoon.  There was a wonderfully complicated section towards the end, as seen below.

How would you go from 28-29?

The Canadian Crew

Thank you to Jeff for stepping in and coaching!  And good luck to those going to JWOC next year - if our time there was any indication you are all in for wonderful terrain!

Team JWOC doing a little cross training

A view out Emma S and Pia's window...

Go Canada!

Canada's JWOC 2016 team is on-site in Ftan, Switzerland

The JWOC 2016 team converged on Ftan, Switzerland, traveling variously by car, bus and train (one car took the northern route from Zürich through Austria, and owing to a missed turn, ended up in Nanders - we almost added Italy to our list of countries visited). We all arrived safely in time for dinner and celebrated Emma's birthday with two Black Forest cakes! We're not sure why Jeff appears overwhelmed.

Tomorrow we will pick up our training maps in Scuol, and then get our first taste of the forest in the Engadin Valley.

The accommodations at the Hochalpines Institut Ftan are excellent, and the food so far has been plentiful and tasty. The Canadian team has one wing on the third floor all to ourselves.

Go Canada!

Canadian and US teams about to start running in Jukola 2016

There are four North American teams registered this year in the world's largest relay race - Jukola. At 23:00 Finland time (13:00 PDT, 16:00 EDT) on Saturday, June 18,  there will be a mass start of 1717 teams, running seven legs each through the night. If you want to follow the action, go to http://www.jukola.com/2016/en/live/. The two Canadian teams are from Ottawa (team #380) and the Yukon (team #384).

Here is the Yukon team, in running order from left to right: Pia Blake, Leif Blake, Forest Pearson, Jennifer MacKeigan, Ross Burnett, Svante Larsson, and Caelan McLean. Go Yukon!

Other teams to watch are the two US teams: Cambridge (team 230) and the US Junior Team (team 1701).

Earlier today, the all-woman Venla relay ran with 1345 4-person teams. Some well-known Canadians were running for European teams: Emily Kemp ran the anchor for Angelniemen Ankkuri (team 46) which placed 20th (she will also be running for the Ottawa team!) and Louise Oram ran anchor for Bäkkelagets SK 2 (team 365) which placed 60th. Amazing performances!

Go Canada! Go USA!

JWOC athlete update from Jan Erik Naess

Canadian JWOC athlete Jan Erik Naess was recently training in Hamilton before he heads over to Europe to get ready to compete at the Junior World Orienteering Championships in Switzerland July 9-15. Click on the image below to go to Jan Erik's personal blog and read about his recent training in Hamilton.

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2016 High Performance Program Silent Auction at the Canadian Orienteering Championships!

While the Canadian Orienteering Championships (COCs) are still 6 weeks away, we wanted to let everyone know that the High Performance Program Silent Auction will be held in conjunction with the COC banquet on Sunday, July 31st.

This is the main fundraiser each year for the High Performance Program. The last few years we have brought in around $4000! The money goes directly towards support athletes, such as through helping with training camps and having coaches.

Donations from the general orienteering community (and their networks) are very welcome, so we thank you for your consideration and generosity! If you aren’t coming to the COCs, you can arrange to send your item with someone who is (who’s attending is listed here). 

  

If you'd like to donate something, but don't have any ideas, here are a few suggestions:

·     Can your club donate an entry to an upcoming event?

·     Are you a crafter  – can you donate something like a pair of home- made mittens, hat, pottery?

·     Are you a foodie – can you donate a jar of home-made jam or a batch of cookies or granola?

·     Do you have a cabin that you could donate a gift certificate for a weekend or a week’s stay at?

·     Are you an artist – do you have a sketch of an orienteering scene, or a great photograph that you could put in a frame?

·     Could you ask your local running/sport store to donate an item?

·     A map or piece of clothing autographed by an orienteering celebrity

·     New orienteering clothes (or a used item signed by an orienteering celebrity, worn by an O celeb in a high profile race, etc.)

·     Any other skills that you could offer to help coach someone in?

If you have any questions, please email Emily Ross at emily.s.r@gmail.com. Please let her know if you are planning on bringing something so we can start to get a sense of what items will be donated as well as start hyping some of the big ticket items. Thank you for all of your support of the High Performance Program and we look forward to seeing you at the Icefields Parkway Orienteering Festival!

JWOC 2016 preview

Just a few weeks are left before the JWOC training camp and JWOC in Scuol, Switzerland. The teams members are busy training for peak performance July 9-15!

The team this year has a mix of JWOC veterans and some new faces, with first-time JWOC coach Jeff Teutsch at the helm. Sabine Schweiger is the team leader. Erik Blake (that's me) will be keeping you up to date, and assisting Sabine.

Below is the team list. You can click on the athletes' name to view their athlete profile:

• Pia Blake (Whitehorse, YT)
• Emma Sherwood (Calgary, AB)
• Emma Waddington (Hamilton, ON)
• Nicole Whitmore (Hamilton, ON)

• Leif Blake (Whitehorse, YT)
• Robert Graham (Ottawa, ON)
• Caelan McLean (Whitehorse, YT)
• Christian Michelsen (Dundas, ON)
• Jan Erik Naess (Chicago, IL/Hamilton, ON)
• Michael Svoboda (Calgary, AB)

• Tomas Graham (Ottawa, ON) - alternate

If you want to follow what's happening, you can go to the JWOC web site at www.jwoc2016.ch. We'll be updating you on the athletes' progress for each race, so stay tuned to this blog. I'll also be posting on twitter with the hashtag #jwoc2016can - I invite others to do so too!

Go Canada!