Long Quali Post-Race & Middle Quali Pre-Race

Today at WOC ~ the long distance qualification, and Louise Oram qualified! Congratulations to Louise! Will Critchley, Robbie Anderson, and Jeff Teutsch all ran strong races, but were not able to break the top 15 in their heats. Special mention to Jeff, as this is his first ever WOC race! Nice work, Jeff!

Robbie taking a moment after his run!

Jeff, Louise, and Robbie shared some thoughts on their races today:

Jeff: "This was my first WOC race, and it was lots of fun! I had developed a good plan based on training runs on the model maps, but after just three controls in the competition terrain I realized the plan would not work. The plan was to hop out to trails and run around the forest because of the danger of getting caught in slow underbrush - but today the forest was faster than training days so trail running was not a good choice and instead it was important to go more directly using compass. Generally I'm happy with my run - I just had two small issues when I deviated from my plan. Feel I need a few more years to work on my endurance and speed to make the Final."

Louise: "My race was pretty clean. I pushed hard on the trails and I always attacked safely. Sometimes I went less "around" to take a shorter route. Probably I made one to two minutes of mistakes over all. Saw Anne-Margarethe Hausken (NOR) a few times. She passed me but I saw her again after. I'm pretty happy. Though I did feel a little ill at the end from pushing so hard."

Louise finishing up her qualification run. Nice work Louise!

Robbie: "I took the trails too much; the woods were nicer than the model maps. Both my races (yesterday's Sprint Q and Long Q) were physical and I did not have the legs. I made a few small mistakes but am happy with my race. I stopped too long for water - I didn't need it all ;-)

Men
Heat A (map)
1. Olav Lundanes (NOR) 59:03
27. Eric Bone (USA) 1:17:34 (+18:30)
29. Jeff Teutsch 1:24:01 (+24:58)

Heat B (map) 1. Matthias Merz (SWI) 59:22
25. Will Critchley 1:15:34 (+16:12)
33. Eddie Bergeron (USA) 1:37:44 (+38:22)

Heat C (map)
1. Edgars Bertuks (LAT) 58:13
21. Robbie Anderson (CAN) 1:11:29 (+13:16)
30. Giacomo Barbone (USA) 1:26:58 (+28:45)

Women
Heat B (map) 1. Simone Niggli-Luder (SWI) 47:39
14. Louise Oram (CAN) 57:00 (+9:20)
22. Alex Jospe (USA) 1:07:14 (+19:34)

Special mention to Samantha Saeger of Team USA who qualified in heat A. Here are the maps for women's heat A and heat C. Full results and splits are available on the live site. You can view more photos from Adrian here. 

One bizarre error today from the organizers; at each start interval there were three runners starting (Heats A/B/C) simultaneously. However, there was an non-divisible-by-three number of runners so at the last women's start time there was only one runner starting, Tatyana Riabkina (RUS). She should have run in Heat B but was sent out instead on Heat A - which she won. So those of you who were paying close attention would notice that 16 runners from Heat A made the final instead of the usual 15. So, 46 finalists for the Women's Long distance race on Thursday. Simone Niggli is the favourite to win on home terrain, but watch for Tatyana Riabkina, Minna Kaupi, Helena Jansson, and last year's JWOC champion Ida Bobach. In the men's race, it looks the Swiss will have a hard time doing the sweep again, given the broad, close field.  It'll be an exciting one to watch!

Tomorrow is the middle qualification race. Running for Canada is Damian Konotopetz, Eric Kemp, Jeff Teutsch, and Louise Oram. Start times are listed below, along with some thoughts on the race tomorrow. You can view Coach Magnus' views on tomorrow's race on the Orienteering Canada YouTube site.

Louise: 13:45
Jeff: 14:25
Eric: 14:45
Damian: 15:09

Jeff: "My plan for the Middle qualification is to be careful, especially approaching controls which can be in thick forest, and sometimes "tucked away". I plan to be conservative, use my compass, have safe attack points, and be prepared to stop and look around for the control when I reach the centre of the circle."

Louise: "I will try to have again the same "smooth feeling" I had today (in the long qualification). I will be more cautious and navigate my best."

Damian: "It will be a fast net downhill course with important route choices."

Eric: "The woods are going to be a lot tougher then I was expecting but I know I can handle whatever the course setters throw at us. Despite this being my first WOC race, I feel ok. Attending both WUOC and JWOC the last two weeks has helped me keep things in perspective. When you get down to it, it's a middle distance just like any other."

As always, you can follow along on the live site or on Twitter for live updates, or visit the blog for full commentary after the race! Go Canada Go!