O-Races as a competitor and as an organizer

I was tired after the Canadian Championship races last weekend near Edmonton in Alberta. It was a challenging bunch of races with the heat, the tall grass and the mosquitoes. I was also tired from the couple of weeks before when I was doing a lot of planning for the Ontario Orienteering Championships. My club the Stars are hosting the Ontarios this fall in the Kitchener-Waterloo area. Things are coming along nicely, but organizing an orienteering event takes a lot of energy and effort. I am responsible for the course setting of two of the three races that weekend and along with all the other technical aspects organizing an event definitely takes a toll on my training. On the other hand, I know how much effort goes into hosting an orienteering event with planning, mapping, course setting, dealing with registration and lots of other issues. It makes me grateful to the organizers of all the other events I participate in each year.

 

As competitors we want to be successful, and as event organizers we want success as well. That means many happy competitors. As an organizer I think about what I want as a competitor from a race and try to offer a nice challenging course. That’s what I am going to do for the Ontarios. Our club will do our best to give our competitors good orienteering challenges, and we hope we have lots of participants to make it a good event.

 

Register (http://baleka.org/stars/events/20121006), plan your trip, train hard and come out and compete. Use this event as your last test before the North American Orienteering Championships and then treat yourself to a beer at the largest Oktoberfest celebration outside of Germany happening in Kitchener that weekend. We have a brand new area for the middle distance, a nice campus map for the sprint, and a tough technical terrain on an updated Hilton Falls map, which Golden Horseshoe Orienteering has very kindly allowed us to use. This technical terrain is adjacent to the site of the NAOC 2006 and will be very challenging.

 

I promise not so much heat, not so much tall grass, and definitely no blood donations to the mosquitos! And all three  races are part of Canada Cup where you can score more points. For you and for your club .

Train hard, stay healthy

Nick Duca

JWOC Relay and WOC Sprint Preview

The relay was the last race of JWOC 2012. The women's race started at 10 am. Running first for Canada was Emily Kemp. After realizing the lead girls were taking an inferior route, Emily broke off from the pack and jumped into first, just in time for the first radio control. "The first girls have arrived at the radio and it's Emily Kemp from Canada in the lead!!!" cried the announcer. "I saw they were running too low and I said, 'I think I'll go this way!'" explained Emily. 

The top pack recovered and Emily handed off to Molly in 15th place, just 2 minutes behind the lead teams of Norway and France.

 Molly had a solid run and handed off to Kendra in 22nd position. Kendra had a great run and finished in 19th. When removing second teams and mixed teams Canada came 14th of official teams! Denmark beat Sweden by just 15 seconds to win the women's relay. Switzerland was 3rd.

Kerstin Burnett raced second on a mixed team of Delphine Poirot of France and Brenda Chan Hau Chan Wah of Hong Kong. 

In the men's race, Russia won by a minute over Denmark and Norway.

 The Canadian boys had solid runs, and with help of Emily Ross, got an official finish in the Men's relay. 

Thank you to Brent, Stefan, and Eric Kemp for all of your great updates and pictures for the blog (and of course all of your hard work with the athletes).


Congratulations to all of the JWOC athletes. We look forward to following your progress in the future!


This ends our JWOC 2012 coverage. The Canadian team is off to the banquet this evening but apparently we will not be getting any updates ;-)

Don't worry about going into orienteering withdrawal because the World Championships kick off in Lausanne, Switzerland Saturday morning with the sprint.


The women's qualification starts at 9am and the men start at10 am. The top 15 from each heat will go on to the sprint final in the afternoon. There are lots of options to follow along with the races including live radio, live results,  live blog, GPS tracking, and a tv broadcast with 38 camera positions for the finals!  The live site can be found here


 Louise Oram has decided to sit out the sprint to focus on the forest events so no Canadian women will be running the sprint. 
Robbie Anderson, Will Critchley, and Patrick Goeres will run for the men. 
Here is what they had to say about the upcoming race:

Patrick: "Feeling fit and fast and confident, can't wait!"

Robbie: "Its going to be super tight, and so I'll just have to give it my all and hope for the best."

Will: "After investigation of the likely qualification terrain, it’s hard to know what to expect. The university campus is very complex, almost too complex. How will the mappers map it? Will they generally avoid the super complex terrain to prevent inevitable complaints about the mapping, or throw us headlong into some massively confusing, multi-layer insanity? Either way, there will likely be mistakes, and safe routes on the tricky legs while opening up on the easier short legs will be key to getting through. And, as it stands, getting into the final is my only goal. We'll worry about the rest later."


Watch a video of what coach Magnus has to say about the WOC 2012 sprint

Start Times

Patrick Goeres - 10:07
Will Critchley - 10-13
Robbie Anderson - 10:39

The WorldofO website has an amazingly complete and detailed summary of everything you could ever want to know about the upcoming sprint in their all you need to know about WOC 2012 article. Here is a short snippet:

"Both the sprint qualification and final are city sprints. The WOC sprint this year is special in that none of the gold medalists from 2011 are on start this year. The sprint distance is the most open race with 10-15 possible gold medalists in the mens class and 5-8 possible gold medalists in the womens class. The biggest favourite in the mens class are the Swiss and Swedish men – all 6 Swiss and Swedish men on start are potential gold medalists – Matthias Merz, Matthias Kyburz, Matthias Müller, Jerker Lysell, Anders Holmberg, Jonas Lenadersson. There are actually Swiss runners which would have been clear favourites for gold which are not on the start list! Outsiders in the mens class are EOC sprint silver medalist Kiril Nikolov, WOC bronze medalist from WOC 2010 Frederic Tranchand (although he has not been in sprint form so far this season), 5th on EOC sprint Scott Fraser and previous sprint World Champion Andrey Khramov (although not been in shape this season).

In the womens class, home star Simone Niggli is the big favourite – as in all the races she starts in at this World Championships. However, the sprint is still very open as a small mistake can be enough for the others to pass her on the results list. Along with Niggli, all Swedish women are among the  gold favourites – Sweden took the Triple in the womens class at last years WOC sprint! And although Gustafsson is out, both Helena Jansson and Lena Eliasson are on the start with reigning long distance world champion Annika Billstam finalizing the team. Denmark’s Maja Alm is also a gold favourite after her 3nd place at EOC sprint earlier this year, 2nd place at the sprint World Cup in St Gallen in June and 4th place at last year’s WOC sprint. A gold favourite who is easily overlooked when looking at previous results is Norwegian Anne Margrethe Hausken. Just as Niggli she is back on the scene after childbirth – and at European Champs she was disqualified away from a bronze medal. Also count in the other Swiss women among the favourites – along with Finnish Venla Niemi who took the fourth spot in the St Gallen World Cup sprint."

We are looking forward to it! Good luck to all of the athletes.

Thierry Gueorgiou Discusses Emily Kemp’s JWOC Bronze Medal

Canadian junior/senior team members Emily Ross, Emily Kemp, and Carol Ross pose with Thierry Gueorgiou at the 2011 Portugal O meeting

For the past 2 years, Emily Kemp has been training with the French elite orienteering program, Le Pole while attending university in St. Etienne. Orienteering Canada (OC) caught up with ten time World Orienteering Champion, Thierry Gueorgiou (TG), to get the Frenchman’s thoughts on Emily Kemp’s historic run for Canadian orienteering. 

OC: Thierry, were you following the JWOC long race online?

TG: Of course, I heard about Emily's bronze as I was following the race live. This is simply sensational. I am also very proud of her and can easily imagine how great it is for all North America orienteer’s community. After the race, I quickly went on attackpoint to read the comments and it (reminded) me so much the wave of enthusiasm in French orienteering after my first gold medal at WOC in 2003. I really hope it is just the beginning of a long story and the promise of something even greater!

OC: What were your thoughts when you first heard about Emily's bronze medal?

TG: That was fantastic news, of course. I got a boost of positive emotions after her race. Many times this winter, I had thought what her level was and what kind of result she could get at JWOC. A top 6 would have been realistic with a great performance on the day. So, she surprised me once again and I sincerely hope it is just the beginning. She is the living proof that no hill is too high when you have an unstoppable will.

OC: How do you think she will do in the middle distance final on Thursday?

TG: Well, now, it is going to be even harder. Of course, she got the proof that she can perform extremely well and probably a shorter distance can suit her better with her knee problem of the last 2 weeks. But, the difficulty is to start all over again from a blank sheet (of) paper. In the last hours, she got a boost of emotions through her whole body; everybody has been so enthusiastic around her. This is, of course, very normal in such situation. Naturally, you lose some hunger. Now, she has to calm down, forget what has happened, and keep working. That (is) the most difficult situation in orienteering, to put everything behind and keep performing races after races in a (J)WOC week. This is what we call consistency and it requires a lot of experience. She will be able to celebrate those results the whole summer if she wants but right now the most important thing is to keep the focus on what’s ahead. But I tell it again, her long result had nothing to do with luck. So, she has the potential to stand on the top again at the middle distance, but it will be all in the mind and attitude

OC:  When you were visiting us in Canada you asked about good young Canadian orienteers that might be interested in training in France and that of course led to Emily joining the French National Team training group. How much has she developed with your group in the two years and did you expect Emily to do so well?

TG: Yes, when I visited North America in 2009, I got impressed by this little girl who was completing the men’s elite course with a nice style. It is easy to say that her first steps in France were an adventure. But with her enthusiasm and passion for life she jumped over every giant hurdle. She is so much appreciated by everyone here and probably the best advertisement in France for Canada! In a wider perspective, I would say she had already a talent and knowledge when she arrived in France but she needed to be more professional in her approach of orienteering. She still has a lot to learn, but she has already got quite many pieces of the winning puzzle!

OC: Do you have advice for other young Canadian orienteers?

TG: As I said, Emily is the living proof that attitude and will are more important than anything else. Nothing can stop a person with the right mental attitude from achieving their goal; nothing on earth can help a person with the wrong mental attitude. Of course, the challenge is big when you live in North America, because of small economical support for orienteering (despite some sensational terrains), but if you manage to break all those brick walls on your way, you’ll be even stronger and be a hard break for your competitors! One of my goals when I was younger was that no Scandinavian runners would ever laugh when he will see “France” in a start list. And I sincerely hope that in some years, a Canadian in a podium in an international race will not surprise anyone anymore!

Best regards,

Thierry

The Countdown To Europe ~ Intro to WUOC!

As you are hopefully aware, our Canadian athletes are now gearing up to go to Europe for the world championships! This year the 3 big championships are back to back ~ the World University Championships (WUOC) run from July 2-7, the Junior World Orienteering Championships (JWOC) run from July 7-13, and the World Orienteering Championships run from July 14-21. Canada is sending a strong team of athletes to each of these events.

To ensure that you're as excited as we are about these championships, and to keep you informed of all the inside gossip, the High Performance Committee's (HPC's) communications team will be bringing you more information than you ever wanted to know! Tune in to this blog where you'll find pre-race coverage, terrain analysis, goals and thoughts of the runners, along with all the links you'll need to watch the race live online! There will also be post-race coverage with analysis, athletes thoughts, maps, results and splits, photos, and so much more! So make sure you stay tuned and read up on all the events. And, of course, your comments are always welcome, as we support and cheer on our Canadian athletes!

Today's post is an introduction to the WUOC! This is the 18th time WUOC has been held, and unlike WOC and JWOC, WUOC is only held every 2 years. Athletes must be between 17 and 28 years old, and must be either working towards a degree or diploma, or have graduated in 2011. This year, athletes will travel to Alicante, Spain for 4 days of exciting races!


View Larger Map - Alicante is on the south east corner of Spain!

Each country may send a team of 12 competitors (6 men and 6 women). For the sprint, middle, and long distance races, 4 runners from each country are able to participate. For the relay, countries can enter 2 teams of 3 runners, although the team with the best result is the one that will count in the official results.

This year, Canada is sending 5 men and 1 woman to WUOC. We're also very lucky to have ex-Canadian team member Pam James escorting as team leader. Below is the list of competitors, along with who is running which race:

Sprint (July 4): Damian Konotopetz, Jeff Teutsch, Robbie Anderson, Will Critchley, Louise Oram

Middle (July 5): Damian Konotopetz, Eric Kemp, Jeff Teutsch, Robbie Anderson, Louise Oram

Long (July 3): Damian Konotopetz, Eric Kemp, Robbie Anderson, Will Critchley, Louise Oram

The relay (July 6) teams will be decided at the event, although we have insider information that Louise Oram has been approved to run on a men's team, which means all the guys will get to run! Maybe some healthy competition between the Canadian teams?!

From July 2nd, when you log in to the Team Canada blog you'll find pre-race coverage, terrain analysis, goals and thoughts of the runners, along with all the links you'll need to watch the race live online! There will also be post-race coverage with analysis, athletes thoughts, maps, results and splits, photos, and so much more!

Let's hear your cheers; Go Canada Go!

2012 Team to World Championships Announced!

The Canadian Orienteering Federation (COF) and the High Performance Committee (HPC) are delighted to announce the selection of talent to represent Canada at the World Orienteering Championships (WOC). This year Patrick Goeres (Winnipeg), Robbie Anderson (Ottawa), Will Critchley (Edmonton), Eric Kemp (Ottawa), Damian Konotopetz (Winnipeg), Jeff Teutsch (Ottawa), and Louise Oram (Vancouver), accompanied by coach and team leader Magnus Johansson (Vancouver), are heading over to Lausanne, Switzerland from July 14-21. Each country can send up to 6 athletes to WOC, but can only enter 3 athletes per race. Below is the list of who is scheduled to run each of the races:

Men:
Sprint: Patrick Goeres, Robbie Anderson, Will Critchley - Alternate: Damian Konotopetz
Middle: Eric Kemp, Damian Konotopetz, Jeff Teutsch - Alternate: Robbie Anderson
Long: Jeff Teutsch, Robbie Anderson, Will Critchley - Alternate: Damian Konotopetz

Relay: Team to be decided at WOC

Women:
Middle: Louise Oram
Long: Louise Oram

COF would also like to acknowledge and thank the selection committee for their hard work. Selection is never an easy process, and this year Magnus Johansson, Brian May, and Magali Robert stepped up to the challenge. Selection is not only based on the results of identified priority races, but also training consistency, recent performance at WOC and other events, and opportunity for younger athletes with potential for success. You can find all the details in the 2012 Athlete Handbook.

COF will be bringing you the inside scoop on the Junior World Orienteering Championships (JWOC), the World University Orienteering Championships (WUOC), and WOC, so make sure you log on and tune in on the Team Canada Blog, on Facebook, or on Twitter. 

Go Canada Go!

Team Selection Races

The past two weekends saw the two "especially important" priority selection races for the senior Canadian orienteering team; one in eastern and one in western Canada. The selection for the senior WOC team is an involved process. Team Canada wannabes must attend at least two of five priority races, and at least one of the two "especially important" priority races, listed below (the "especially important" races are bolded). The selection committee then makes their decision based on results of these races, as well as other factors such as training quality and consistency and other significant event results. You can find more info about the selection process in the athlete handbook. 

The five priority races for the 2012 selection were:

● US Champs and Team Trials, April 13-15, Carrollton, GA

● West Point, May 5-6, Highland Falls, NY

● Ottawa O-Fest, May 19 - 21, Ottawa, ON

● Sage Stomp, May 19-21, Kamloops, BC

● Barebones, May 26-27, Calgary/Canmore, AB

The selection committee, comprising of Magnus Johansson, Brian May, and  Magali Robert, are now in top secret talks to decide which 6 men will represent Canada at the World Orienteering Championships, scheduled July 14-21, 2012 in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Due to scheduling conflicts and illness, Louise Oram is the only woman set to represent Canada. She is currently sidelined with a bad ankle sprain, so send her your healing thoughts. We hope that she'll be fit to run in Lausanne! 

Louise sprinting at Sage Stomp, just after she sprained her ankle. She managed to finish the race, even with a double sized ankle. What a trooper! Get better soon, Louise! Photo kudos to Murray Foubister

The eastern selection races were held in Ottawa, as part of Ottawa O-Fest. By all accounts it was an amazing weekend of racing under 30 degree skies! The first race of the weekend was a fun middle course held at the March Highlands. Eric Kemp of Ottawa had a fantastic race, with Sergei Zhyk in second place. Andrew Childs of GMOC had a great run coming in third, with Team Canada hopeful Serghei Logvin in fourth place. 


Patrick Goeres had a great race, but missed control #5 by reading ahead. There was an incident involving one control (control #7 on the men's course) where Wil Smith and James Connell both came back not too far apart from each other claiming the battery on that control was dead. The organizers had decided not to attach manual punches to the SI stands (note to all meet directors, when you cut corners, the unexpected always happens!). The meet directors took their word and re-instated both runners, but discovered later that other people punched the control between the two runners and after them too. Was the battery on the blink switching on and off? It's a mystery! You can find the full results list and for the men's elite race here!


Saturday afternoon saw the sprint race at Tunney's Pastures; a fast paced urban sprint. Patrick Goeres kept up his reputation of sprint guru, beating second place Serghei Logvin by a minute! Eric Kemp did a great job to hang on to third place, but had a 30 second error running past a control then having to run back because he wasn't sure he'd punched it! When you're running right on the edge of technical and physical ability, it's tough to also find the mental energy to remember those little details (but that's why we love orienteering, right?!) Check out the full results and split times.

Eric Kemp on the long course. Photo kudos to Bill Anderson!

The long distance race was held on Sunday. Due to the high temperatures, a number of runners did not complete the course. Eric Kemp held it together and crushed the competition with a time of 1:39:39, nearly 10 minutes over second place Wil Smith! Team Canada hopefuls Nick Duca and Jon Torrance finished 4th and 5th respectively. 

Patrick Goeres was having a great race, until control #15 where a branch in the eye took out his contact lens! Unable to see, he had to bow out gracefully, even though he was leading by over 4 minutes (note - bring spare contact lenses on course!). One of the top US runners, Sergei Zhyk, pulled out after control #7, claiming he'd "run out of gas". He was leading until that point, so maybe went out too quickly? In 30 degree heat you've got to pace yourself! You can view the first and second maps, and see the full results.

Pretty much sums up how runners were feeling after the long! Photo kudos to Stefan Bergstrom

Special mention to Team Canada hopeful Jeff Teutsch, who took on the mighty role of meet director for the Ottawa O-Fest weekend. Great job, Jeff! We've heard nothing but positive feedback from the event (although maybe next time order the weather a little cooler!)

Thanks for all your hard work, Jeff! Photo kudos to Eric Kemp

From May 22-25, junior HPP coach Brent Langbakk held an HPP training camp in Canmore. It was well attended by 9 enthusiastic HPP members. We recommend you check out Brent's blog, as he's going to be posting details of some exercises he offered. You can also read Kerstin Burnett's account of the training camp (sounds like it was a tiring week!) Thanks to Brent and Larry Konotopetz for their hard work to put this camp together!


Last weekend, May 26-27, saw Canmore and Barebones hosting the western selection races. It wasn't quite as warm there; around freezing overnight, getting up to the mid teens during the day. Those who camped definitely had a chilly night!


The first race of the weekend was a downhill sprint at the Canmore Nordic Centre (isn't downhill sprint everyone's favourite sprint?!), with a fun mixture of forest, complex trails, and urban terrain! Patrick Goeres proved for the second weekend that he's a sprint demon, pipping out second place Eric Kemp. Graeme Rennie of GVOC ran a great race and came in third. Other Team Canada hopefuls were Damian Konotopetz in fifth and Jeff Teutsch in ninth. Will Critchley was having a stellar race before he mis-punched; he got caught by an early control on a different feature and mis-read the control number (it happens to the best of us!) 


I love this quote from Eric Kemp "Feels good to be alive when you're bombing down a mountain and spiking your controls". Pretty much sums the race up!

Does it get much better than this? Answer; no! Finish chute for the Sprint. Photo kudo to Graeme Rennie!

Saturday afternoon saw the long distance event, again at Canmore Nordic Centre. This race boasted a variety of terrain, long route choices, and, of course, just a little climb! Check out the route gadget for the courses! Coach Brent Langbakk doled out some great advice ahead of the race - look for wide, safer route choices that avoid all the wiggly little mountain bike trails and minimize the climb! And man were there a lot of wiggly little mountain bike trails! And lots of climb (especially for the last few controls!)


Will Critchley pushed his hamstring injury aside to take the win, just ahead of Patrick Goeres. Jeff Teutsch had a strong race to come in third, with Mike Smith and Damian Konotopetz in fourth and fifth. Due to on-coming illness, Eric Kemp decided to save himself for the middle event the next day! 


The middle distance race at Mount Laurier was held on Sunday morning. This tricky area of incredible contour detail and fabulous open running makes for a true test of fine navigation at high speed. Will Critchley proved again that he's a force to be reckoned with, winning the elite category. Sitting out the long was obviously a good choice for Eric, who came in second. Patrick Goeres showed he's still got it, coming in third. Mike Smith had a strong race in fourth place.


Around control #16 on the elite course, some runners came across two bear cubs! The word quickly spread, and suddenly runners were having to orienteer and shout out to scare the bears away! Running + navigating + shouting = tiring! An orienteer also came across the mother bear standing on her hind legs, sniffing the air ~ we were all pretty sweaty, so I'm sure she smelt us all from miles away (although we were also right beside the landfill, so maybe we weren't that smelly!) To top off a fun weekend, the junior from Calgary had set up a micro-O as a fundraiser. I know I certainly was confused for the first control, having to convert from a 1:10000 map to a 1:2500! Great job kids, it was a blast!


A huge thank you to Adrian Zissos and the Barebone's team for a fantastic weekend of races! Barebones managed to get some local press coverage in the The Rocky Mountain Outlook and the Canmore Leader. The caption on the front page photo is particularly cute! Ottawa O-Fest also managed to get on CBC news! Check out the clip below ~ nice work guys!

Stay tuned for the team selection announcement ~ we have it on good authority that an announcement is coming in the next few days! You'll hear it here first! 

Final Selection for 2012 JWOC team!

Further to the announcement on March 23, 2012, the final team selection for the 2012 Junior World Orienteering Championships (JWOC) has been made. The Canadian Orienteering Federation and the High Performance Committee are delighted to announce that Kerstin Burnett, Emily Ross, and Molly Kemp have been selected to join previously announced team of Alex Bergstrom, Trevor Bray, Emily Kemp, and Kendra Murray. These athletes will represent Canada in Slovakia from July 7-13, 2012.

You can tune in online to follow the progress of our athletes throughout the year on the Team Canada Blog, on Facebook, and on Twitter @OrienteeringCAN

Let's hear you cheer for our athletes!

Eric Kemp To The Top

Canada Cup Elite Series Update

After a flurry of orienteering events in late May, including 6 Canada Cup races, Eric Kemp (OOC) is making an early push to the top of the Elite Series. Eric won both the Middle and the Long, and added a third place in the Sprint at the Ottawa O-Fest. He followed that up with a second place in the Barebones Sprint in Canmore on Saturday morning for a total score of 85 points. Eric is 20 points ahead of Thomas Nipen (GVOC), who dominated Sage Stomp completely, winning both the Middle and Long Canada Cups on the new McQueen Lake map outside Kamloops. Patrick Goeres (CdeB) moves into third place in the Elite Series after winning both the Sprint in Ottawa and in Canmore. 

For the women, Louise Oram (GVOC) extends her lead after also winning both Canada Cups at Sage Stomp. Unfortunately she suffered a pretty bad high ankle sprain in the Sprint after jumping a rope fence, forcing her to stay home from Barebones this weekend and is probably looking at almost a month of recovery. We are holding our thumbs that she will be able to come back in time for WUOC and WOC! Kerstin Burnett (YOA) and Tori Owen (FWOC) are leading the chasing pack behind Louise. Next up in the Canada Cup schedule is the Yukon Championships on June 10.

2012 JWOC Team Announced!

The COF’s High Performance Committee (HPC) is proud to announce the initial team selection for the 2012 Junior World Orienteering Championships (JWOC). Once again, we had a strong group of focused athletes who wish to represent Canada at the World Championship level.

The JWOC team is heading to Slovakia from July 7 – 13. Below is the initial selection for the Canadian Team. Additional athletes may be added to the team in May.

Men:
Alex Bergstrom
Trevor Bray

Women:
Emily Kemp
Kendra Murray

Please join us in congratulating our athletes! Remember you can follow the progress of our JWOC team and High Performance Program (HPP) members as they gear up for JWOC, COC’s, and NAOC’s online:

Team Canada blog
Facebook
Twitter

Keep your comments and cheers coming, and show our athletes your support!

High Performance Program Athletes Announced!

The COF's High Performance Committee are proud to announce the successful athletes for the 2012 High Performance Program! These athletes represent orienteers from across the country that show potential to represent Canada at the World Championship level.

Junior Athletes (Coach - Brent Langbakk, Whitehorse, YK)

Adam Woods (Vancouver, BC)

Alexander Bergstrom (Ottawa, ON)

Trevor Bray (Whitehorse, YK)

Emily Kemp (Ottawa, ON)

Emily Ross (Moncton, NB)

Jennifer MacKeigan (Whitehorse, YK)

Kendra Murray (Whitehorse, YK)

Kerstin Burnett (Whitehorse, YK)

Laura Teutsch (Ottawa. ON)

Molly Kemp (Ottawa, ON)

Pia Blake (Whitehorse, YK)

Senior Athletes (Coach - Magnus Johannson, Vancouver, BC)

Damian Konotopetz (Winnipeg, MB)

Darius Konotopetz (Winnipeg, MB)

Eric Kemp (Ottawa, ON)

Graeme Rennie (Vancouver, BC)

Jeff Teutsch (Ottawa, ON)

Jon Torrance (Ottawa, ON)

Nick Duca (Waterloo, ON)

Patrick Goeres (Winnipeg, MB)

Robbie Anderson (Ottawa, ON)

Serghei Logvin (Oakville, ON)

Will Critchley (Edmonton, AB)

Carol Ross (Moncton, NB)

Louise Oram (Vancouver, BC)

Tori Owen (Calgary, AB)

We asked Brent, Magnus, and Patrick Goeres (Chair of the HPC) for their thoughts on the HPP athlete selection for this year. Here's what they had to say:

Brent Langbakk ~ "The junior athletes in the HPP have two completely different groups. The women are very experienced with several members having participated in multiple Junior World Orienteering Championships. The men's side is undergoing a bit of a rebuilding phase. This season we want them to gain experience so they can be competitive in the next two or three years.”

Magnus Johansson ~ "The senior athletes in the HPP had a strong year in 2011 with improving results at the World Championships. The goal for 2012 is to continue to build on this trend! We are currently especially strong on the women's side, thanks to a few dedicated individuals. For the men, there is a wave of young and motivated athletes training hard. The competition to make the national team is tougher than ever and we expect this to show in the international races this year."

Patrick Goeres ~ “The HPP athletes have made some great progress in the past year and we have a particularly strong, young cohort right now. I predict some ground breaking results in each of the Junior, University and Senior World Championships this year.”

Want to find out more about our athletes? Want to pass on messages of support? Find us online!

View Athlete Profiles: http://www.orienteering.ca/team-canada/high-performance/

Follow our blog: http://teamcanadaorienteering.blogspot.com/

Find us on Facebook: http://fb.me/OrienteeringCanada

Follow us on Twitter: @OrienteeringCAN

Please feel free to join in the conversation - comment, cheer, and show your support for our Canadian Orienteering Athletes!

Alison Price

Communications Assistant

High Performance Committee

Talent + Dedication + Support → Performance + Growth

Video from Lake Tahoe!

Check out this video of Marie-Cat at the Ski-O World Cup in Lake Tahoe. The audio isn't great, but if you listen carefully you can hear the announcer talking about the race!

Too see the video on You Tube, click here.

Ski-O Tour Update ~ Days 1 and 2

The World Cup, US Champs, and North American Champs in Ski orienteering are currently being held in Tahoe, CA. This is the first time the Ski-O World Cup has been held outside Europe! A lack of snow at Bear Valley lead to some last minute changes in the race schedule, but no championship races have been cancelled.

Canada is represented by 6 athletes: Marie-Catherine Bruno (Sage) (Silverstar, BC), Marta Green (Sage) (Vernon, BC), Carol Ross (ONB) (Truckee, CA), Mark Tarnopolsky (GHO) (Hamilton, ON), Mike Smith (ONB) (Prince George, BC), and Nick Duca (Stars) (Kitchener, ON).

The World Cup and North American Long Distance event was held on Monday. Sweden dominated the women's podium, with Tove Alexandersson taking the gold with a clear 2 minute lead over second place Josefine Engstroem. Polina Malchinkova of Russia rounded off the podium. Skiing for Canada were Marie-Cat and Marta, who placed 18th and 20th respectively. Alison Crocker of the USA had a fabulous race, placing just off the podium in 4th place.

The men's field was much tighter, with a minute separating the top 4! Andrey Grigoryev of Russia clenched the top spot with 30 seconds over second place Hans Jorgen Kvale of Norway, who pipped fellow countryman Lars Hol Moholdt to silver by only 5 seconds! Canadian Nick Duca came in 33rd place.

The middle distance North American Championships were held on Tuesday. Today the men's race was dominated by the Lithuania team. Vitalius Petrulis was just under 3 minutes ahead of team mate and second place finisher Regimantas Kavaliauskas. Jiri Bouchal of Czech Republic came in 3rd. Mike Smith and Nick Duca of Canada finished in a solid 10th and 11th place respectively.

In the women's race, Helena Randakova of the Czech Republic beat second place Ramune Arlauskiene of Lithuania by a mere 7 seconds! Alison Crocker of the USA placed 3rd! Racing for Canada were Marta, who finished in 6th place, and Marie-Cat, who mis-punched.

Today (Wednesday) is the World Cup and North American Sprint Distance. The race is still ongoing at time of writing, so we'll post further updates later in the week!

You can follow the live results at this link. Photos and race information are available at the Ski-orienteering World Facebook group, located at this link.

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