World Orienteering Championships 2019!

WOC is next week!

The World Orienteering Championships (WOC) will take place in southern Norway next week. A total of eight athletes will be representing Canada. This year there will only be forest races, no sprint races. The distances and the Canadian athletes are:

Tuesday, August 13th:

Middle qualifier (Emily Kemp, Emma Waddington, Jennifer MacKeigan, Pia Blake, Jan Erik Naess, Michael Svoboda, Robert Graham)

First start: 10 AM local, 4 AM Eastern Time

Wednesday, August 14th:

Long final (Emma Waddington, Will Critchley)

First start: 10:24 AM local, 4:24 AM Eastern Time

Thursday, August 15th:

Rest day

Friday, August 16th:

Middle final (top 60 athletes per gender qualify)

First start: 13:28 AM local, 7:28 AM Eastern Time

Saturday, Aug 17th:

Relay (Emily Kemp, Emma Waddington, Pia Blake, and Jan Erik Naess, Michael Svoboda, Robert Graham, running orders TBD)

Women: 4:20 PM local, 10:20 AM Eastern Time

Men: 6:30 PM local, 12:20 PM Eastern Time

It's always an exciting week to see the top orienteers around the world compete! The organizers have a hashtag #woc2019 and they will have live results, blog, TV, and GPS tracking (purchase may be required for live TV and GPS).

Follow WOC:

https://woc2019.no/en/

http://worldofo.com

https://www.facebook.com/wocorienteering

https://www.instagram.com/wocorienteering/

HPP Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/orienteeringcanadahpp/

Go Canada Go!

Greetings from Norway and Team Canada WOC preparation camp (in the middle of the forest),

-Joonas Pääkkönen, team coach, and Safder Raza, team manager

2019 Silent Auction Fundraiser

Every year the High Performance Program holds a silent auction fundraiser at the Canadian Orienteering Championships. This year, the silent auction will be on Saturday, July 27th in conjunction with the Canadian Orienteering Championships banquet.

Members of the High Performance Program will be donating items, but we greatly rely on and appreciate donations from the orienteering community and their family and friends.

If you would like to donate something, here are a few ideas:

• Could your club donate an entry to an upcoming event? 
• Are you a crafter – can you donate something like a pair of home-made mittens or a hat? pottery? weaving? sculpture? jewellery? 
• Are you a foodie – can you donate a jar of home-made jam, a batch of cookies, a ready-to-go home-made baking mix, some home-made granola? 
• Do you have a cabin or cottage that you could donate a gift certificate for a weekend or a week’s stay at? 
• Do you live in a tourist destination and could offer B&B for a weekend or longer? (especially great if it was in conjunction with future orienteering events) 
• 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? 
• Do you have a new unused item kicking around your house that you would love to get rid of – it might just be someone else’s treasure! 
• Other ideas? Think about what you would like to bid on. 

If you have an item to donate, you can bring it with you to the Canadian Orienteering Championships or send it along with someone who is attending. The HPP is very appreciative of all the support we receive and we look forward to seeing you in Quebec! 

Contract Job Opportunity: High Performance Committee Manager

We are searching for a new High Performance Committee (HPC) Manager. 

The job description can be found here. The High Performance Committee terms of reference can be found here. It is a paid position (hourly wage to be discussed) that is done remotely. The position is for up to 4 hours per week (attendance at HPC meetings is expected when possible, but is not paid).

Candidates should submit a letter of interest outlining why they are suitable for the position to hpp@orienteering.ca by April 22, 2019.

Volunteer Opportunities: Team Manager and Coach for Team Canada at JWOC and WOC 2019

Orienteering Canada’s High Performance Committee is seeking applicants for the volunteer positions of team manager and coach for the 2019 World Orienteering Championship in Norway (August 12-17, 2019 with a training period up to a week before) and Junior World Orienteering Championships in Denmark (July 6-12, 2019 with a training period up to a week before).

Email applications to hpp@orienteering.ca by April 1, 2019.

Details are available at these links:

JWOC Team Manager 2019 – call for applications
JWOC Coach 2019 – call for applications

WOC Team Manager 2019 – call for applications
WOC Coach 2019 – call for applications

HPP 2019 Application - Due November 25th

Orienteering Canada’s High Performance Committee is seeking applications from athletes to become members of the 2019 High Performance Program (HPP).

All athletes who meet the eligibility requirements and who have a strong desire to improve their abilities with a long or short term goal of representing Canada in orienteering are encouraged to apply to the HPP. Those wishing to compete in JWOC, WOC, World Cups, WUOC or World Games are required to be members of the HPP. Membership is from December 1, 2018 to November 30, 2019. There is a fee of $100 to join the 2019 HPP.

In order to be accepted to the HPP, athletes must:
● be at the Learn To Compete, Train To Compete , or Train To Win stages of Orienteering Canada’s LTAD model,
● have competitive results in M/W17-18, M/W19-20 or M/W21E at major national and/or international events,
● develop a training plan, together with their HPP Coach, that targets the physical, technical, tactical and mental aspects of orienteering
● be prepared to put in the required training to compete at or near an international level in accordance with the above mentioned training plan,
● demonstrate a desire to represent Canada in international competition,
● have orienteering training as a main focus, and
● successfully complete the HPP application process

More information and complete details about the application process are in the 2018 Athlete Handbook which is now available on the High Performance Program page.

NAOC on home turf

When I heard that NAOC was going to be in Whitehorse, I was ecstatic! I was super excited to show everyone my home terrain and what Whitehorse has to offer. As it got closer to the day I got more nervous by how many people signed up - where are they all going to stay!? Turns out we can accommodate over 570 athletes.

Okay enough about logistics, let’s talk racing!  The first race on the agenda was the Long. I am pretty darn happy that was the first race, as doing a long 2-3 races in is very gruelling. I made a few bobbles right off the bat but figured it out after that, for a while. I always tell myself take the first 2 controls slow, get used to the terrain, but sadly I don’t always listen to my advice.  To make up for my first two mistakes I made sure to take the next control (the long leg) very easy, safe and smart. Everything went to plan! I had a route, attackpoint and a catching feature.

Thanks to Jim Hawkins for catching a finish smile!

The rest of the race went okay, mistake here, overshot there, but otherwise steady. Then I got to 17! I still mentally kick myself for that control, ahhhh! I navigated 13-16 without a hitch but I didn’t have a strong attackpoint and I started to second-guess myself. I relocated twice and both times I found the men’s elite control. When I was bailing for the 3^rd time I finally figured out where I was and found it.

After a not great start to NAOC and my cold getting worse, I changed my strategy for the middle, slow and steady - because you can’t physically push. I messed up 1 again but the rest of the race was a lot smoother. For the first 5 controls I was running with Emily Ross, but we took different routes to 6 and didn’t cross paths again. I caught up with two other women for a while around 13 and ran with them to 14. Coming out of 14 I knew my route and the ladies were a little in front of me (hard to push up a mossy hill when you are coughing up a lung)! When I finally got up the hill I was super confused because I should have seen them but they were nowhere to be found. This made me second-guess my self and my route but I kept going and double-checking everything. The rest of the race was good and slow.

The National teams lined up for the mass start

The 3^rd race of NAOC was the team relay, I was feeling really sick but I still wanted to race. The map used was the local Biathlon range and trails; this is a special map because of all the animal statues out in the forest and lots of trails. My team was Kendra Murray, Tori Owen and myself. Ken was first, me second and Tori was last. To make things more interesting the club relay was running at the same time so you had people running everywhere. I ran a pretty clean race just couldn’t push it. USA 1 was 1^st place, Emma, Pia and Emily were 2^nd and we came 3^rd.

Tori finishing strong during the relay

The final race was the sprint in the lovely town of Carcross, I hope everyone enjoyed the mayhem in Caribou commons because I did! This was an interesting sprint because it started in the forest, then went urban and finished in the forest again. We had fun obstacles of tourist, dogs and railway crossings.

I had a lot of fun racing in my hometown and really appreciate all the long hours that everyone put in to make it happen!

-Jennifer MacKeigan

Oringen

I got a bit of sense in the stage arena of the scale of O-Ringen but it wasn't until I started that I really understood how big it is. After coming from JWOC where I’d be starting with one other person (of the opposite gender) it was very different to be packed into the start box with up to ten other people. What really drove home the size of the event though was the first couple of minutes of leg 1 where people everywhere. I had a very difficult time concentrating on my own race as I was in the midst of people going in seemingly every direction. This distraction lead to a slow and sloppy execution of the first control.

The second control also had a shock in store for me as I had forgotten about route choice. About a third of the way in I realized my plan was just to go straight and that I hadn’t considered anything else while planning it. As well I hadn't even thought about how much climbing there would be. Both of these, I believe, are from my 2 weeks spent in Hungary. Elevation change there was so little it wouldn't be put in the race info and most of the time the correct route choice was straight. This realization led me to later in the race remind myself to look for route choice that weren't strictly straight.

One thing that I was expecting though was that there would be lots of elephant trails. There were definitely many tracks out there but to my relief they were nowhere near as pronounced as I thought they would be. Going in, I was slightly worried the elephant trails would be so worn in that they would essentially lead you right to the control. I definitely saw tracks out there, but they were mostly confided to areas with undergrowth and large swaths of the terrain was rock. This meant the orienteering was still a challenge which is the fun part :)

Random Extra Note:

I also just want to say that one of the lakes on the day 4 map had a little fish icon in it. I think this cool. 🐟