JWOC ~ Middle Qualifier

Guard chicken on the way to the start...

Today, Tuesday, was the middle qualifier at the Junior World Orienteering Championships (JWOC). For the middle distance race at JWOC, all runners are split into 3 groups for the qualifications. Within each group, those who place between 1st and 20th go on to the A Final, those who place 20th - 40th go into the B Final, and the rest go into the C Final.

Waiting in the quarantine area to start!

In the men's race, Alex Bergstrom ran a strong race to finish only 6.47 behind the winner, earning himself a place in the B final on Wednesday. Adam, Robbie, and Trevor all ran good races, and will fight it out in the C final.

Robbie

Trevor

Adam in the finish chute

Alex said, "Being exact with the compass was important today as most of the controls were along a very rocky slope with many similar looking features."

On the women's side, both Kendra and Jen ran very well to secure them both a place in the B final. Pia will compete in the C final.

Pia

Kendra

Kendra said, " I knew finding those boulders within boulder fields would be tricky."

Jen said " This is the kind of terrain that I enjoy. Not a lot of trails, just compass and the details on the map. Today was more like Canadian terrain."

Pia, Robbie, Trevor, and Adam all had problem controls where they lost too much time even if they also had competitive splits on other legs.

Here are the full results for the Team:
Heat     Place  Name                 Time     Time behind the winner
M20A   52       Adam Woods    36.49    14.55
M20B   45       Trevor Bray        32.48    11.20
M20C   38      Alex Bergstrom  27.59     6.47
M20C   54      Robbie Graham 44.21    23.09
W20A   33      Kendra Murray   32.19    10.31
W20B   47      Pia Blake           42.34     20.02
W20C   39     Jen MacKeigan  36.17    14.37

There are lots of ticks in the grassy areas. The tick is the little black dot, hard to see!

Our adopted team member, Remi Boudot from France, stopped and helped an injured Israeli girl on the course and lost approximately 9 minutes due to this. However, the organizers awarded him a spot in the A-final based on his split times as he was well on his way to a qualifying time when he stopped to help the girl. We tip our hat to Remi for helping a fellow competitor and to the organizers for recognizing this. Fair Play!

The automated bike parking outside the teams hotel. For 5 czech krona (~ $1)  you can park your bike in a secure location all day!

You can view the full results, maps, videos, photos, and so on at the JWOC website.

Check back in tomorrow for behind-the-scenes coverage of the middle final on the blog. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter @OrienteeringCAN.