WOC - Middle Distance Final

Robert Merl of Austria in the spectator chute

Friday was the Middle Distance Final at the World Orienteering Championships. For the first time this WOC, the women ran later than the men. So while Louise, Emily and Coach Toni waited in quarantine, team leader Meghan enjoyed spectating the Men's competition from right below the giant screen.

The men's competition was exciting to watch with the Russian, Leonid Novikov taking a surprise victory over Thierry Gueorgiou by just 9 seconds. Sitting at dinner with  team Canada discussed where they watched Novikov's victory. Toni heard about it in the quarantine, Meghan watched it on the big screen, Eric saw it on the tv at the event centre and Valentin Novikov (Leonid's older brother and 16th place in the middle final) was in the shower!

Louise focused on navigation in her race because although the terrain was slightly less technical than in the middle qualification, it still had low visibility and small hard-to-read details. She was generally happy with her race but wishes that she could have trusted her navigation while running faster.

Emily quite enjoyed the technical aspects of the course but found attacking controls on cliffs from above a tricky maneuver. She bobbled a few controls but avoided any major catastrophes.

Louise placed 41st and Emily placed 26th just 2 seconds out of 25th!

Tomorrow is the relay.

The men go first with Will running the mass start. Robbie will run the second leg and Eric will anchor.

Emily will start off the women followed by Louise and Kerstin.

Team Canada is focusing on having good, technically strong performances more than results.