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

Look forward to JWOC Sprint!

JWOC, the Junior World Orienteering Championships, starts tomorrow in Kosice, Slovakia. The first race is the Sprint, to be held in Kosice city centre. The terrain is described as urban with almost no climb. There are 2 sections: the City Centre is a combination of streets, passages, courtyards, and squares, with very few vegetation features; and the urban parkland will be detailed vegetation, such as flower beds, and some artificial features, such as statues! The course will be 2.3km with 5m of climb for women, and 2.9km with 5m of climb for the men.


Running for Team Canada (with their start time in Slovakia time) are Alex Bergstrom (14:10), Trevour Bray (15:21), Emily Ross (14:03), Kerstin Burnett (14:39), Kendra Murray (15:03), Molly Kemp (15:20), and Emily Kemp (16:05). Slovakia is on Central European Time, which is +9hr PST, +4hrs EST. If you want to follow the results live, they will be updated frequently on the event website. Unfortunately, this is the only way to follow the race (no GPS tracks, etc).


Stefan Bergstrom (parent helper at JWOC) sat down with Emily Ross and Molly Kemp to chat about their experiences so far, and their thoughts for the race tomorrow. Here's their interviews.

Emily Ross ~ this is her 3rd JWOC!

Emily Ross

How many times have you been to JWOC? "This is my 3rd and last JWOC." (Emily will be too old next year!)

What are your goals for JWOC? "I want to focus on having safe clean races that I can be satisfied with."

What are your impressions of the terrain so far? "The terrain here is a mix between Denmark and Poland (my two previous JWOC experiences), but the Karst terrain with the big depressions is new to me. It is difficult and it is important to use the compass to check direction all the time. We have now trained on 3 different maps in Karst terrain so I am more confident now."

What race are you most looking forward to? "I like the Middle distance the best because of the mix of speed and very technical orienteering."

What is your pre-race strategy? "I focus for the races by thinking about my race plan, relax with music, and read the information in the race bulletin so I am aware of all details."

What do you think of Kosice and Slovakia so far? "The accommodation here in Kosice is good, it is nice everyone is in one place. The food is simple but filling. The heat wave we are having is tough as there is no airconditioning. I drink lots of water and stay in the shade. Besides, it is the same for everyone."

What are your thoughts on the race tomorrow? "I'm excited about the sprint in the old city centre tomorrow. It can be tough with the heat and all small streets and narrow lanes."

Molly Kemp ~ this is her 2nd JWOC

Molly Kemp

How many times have you been to JWOC? "This is my second JWOC, I was in Poland last year."

What are your impressions of the terrain so far? "The woods here are awesome! The orienteering is really good. I never experienced this kind of terrain before. The Karst terrain is so different. You need to know your attackpoint, read ahead, know what you are looking for, and look up in front of you because you can see so far ahead."

What's going to be the biggest challenge this week? "The heat eats you up. I drink tons of water."

What race are you most looking forward to? "The middle event is my favourite because of the technical part. The middle maps are very detailed but the visibility is very good so it is easy to identify what is on the map."

What have you been doing to prepare for the races? "As preparation for the races I look at the training maps and drink lots of water. I'm a little nervous, but confident."

What do you think of Kosice and Slovakia so far? "Kosice looks nice but old. As a vegetarian it is a little harder to find good food. I eat lots of bread and luckily I brought my own peanut butter."

What's the best part of your week so far? "It feels so nice to meet my sister Emily again after 10 months. Awesome!"

Sisters reunited!

 We wish all of Team Canada the best of luck for tomorrow's races. Tune in for post-race coverage tomorrow! GO CANADA GO!

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!