JWOC ~ Relay

The JWOC 2013 is over, finishing with an exciting relay where top teams mis-punched left, right, and centre and in the end the Czech Teams were on the top of the podium in both women's and men's events.

The relay was run in a mostly flat area with lots of vegetation features and diffuse and difficult orienteering.

Kendra had a fantastic race ending up in 11th place on the first leg, only 1:10 behind the leader. This was definitely the best Canadian performance all week.

Adam had a very good start and was in the lead pack at the first couple of radio controls and still around 16 place at the spectator control, but then lost time on a couple of controls in the last loop, ending up in 35 place around 8 min behind.

Pia and Jen both had problems and lost time and the team ended up in 38th place.

Trevor and Alex also had some problems with the vegetation features and lost time compared to Adam and the team ended up in 41st place.

Congratulations to everyone on the Canadian Team for a their hard effort against tough competition and in unfamiliar terrain. Now it is time to start training for next year's JWOC in Bulgaria.

The week has been very well organized, with interesting and challenging terrain, good maps and courses, and a fantastic arena production with big screen video and results, and GPS and TV broadcast.

A big Thank You to the organizers in Hradec Kralove.

A big Orienteering Canada shout out and thank you to Stefan Bergstrom for his tireless work over the past 9 months preparing the logistics for our athletes at JWOC. His role cannot be understated, and his efforts are much appreciated.

Thanks to Brian Graham for stepping in at the last minute as Coach. Having an experienced voice to guide and prepare the athletes for races is so important. Also a shout out to Junior HPP coach Brent Langbakk. Brent has done a fantastic job this year arranging individual coaches for each junior athlete in the HPP, giving coaching advice, and lending his expertise to build a great junior program Canada can be proud of. Get well soon, Brent!

The excitement continues tomorrow with the World Orienteering Championships in Finland. We'll keep you posted here, so tune in and support our athletes!