WUOC Begins!

This is the Canadian team reporting from the World University Orienteering Championships in Borlänge, Sweden. There are five runners on the team: Carol Ross, Eric Kemp, Jeff Teutsch, Robbie Anderson and Will Critchley, while Magnus and Andrea are our team leaders.

Today was the first race, the long. The terrain was open white forest with lots of swamps and spongy moss, making running tough. Carol finished in an exciting 41st place, out of 90 women. The men also finished ;)

We're all looking forward to the sprint tomorrow (Wednesday). If you'd like to follow our race, there will be live results. Today there was even a webcam of the finish. Sweden's time zone is CEST which is five hours ahead of AST, nine hours ahead of PST. Our start times are:

Eric 15:58

Robbie 16:16

Will 16:42

Carol 16:37:30

National Team Blood at Barebones

There were four Senior national team members at Barebones: Patrick, Mike, Louise, Carol.

Carol & Louise not only ran some races but the also were course planners - Louise for the super sprint in Whistler Village, and Carol for the WRE middle distance event at Brandywine.

There was a great article in "The Question" - one of the local Whistler papers, that was highlighted with a picture of Carol leaving a control (not visible in the web version), and a big interview with Patrick: A little blood no bother at Barebones

The article begins:
"Patrick Goeres emerged from the woods on the edge of Myrtle Philip Community School at a full sprint, with thin lines of blood running down from a small gash on the left side of his head." Now that's the kind of coverage that'll promote the sport ;-)

New location, new opportunity

First I wanted to extend a large congrats on all the great training and performances we’ve read about on this blog. For those of you who don’t know me I’m Dan, currently residing in the big smoke (GTA). In this post I wanted to share what sparked my interest in orienteering, some thoughts on relocation, and a training camp that I recently attended.

When I was a child I used get so much enjoyment out of going for nature walks with my father. We would walk through the forest and talk about how to best walk quietly to be able to see wildlife and what the best materials for making survival shelters are. We would make sure to not cross any of the paved paths in the park and it wasn’t until I started orienteering did the thrill of exploring new natural areas return to me. I find it very enriching to be able to run through the forest in many areas that the general public are totally unaware of. I get that same feeling that I did so many years ago every time I get out into the woods and have had to pleasure to share that with others.

In the past month I’ve moved from Hamilton to Toronto for work and I’ve spent quite I bit of time thinking about the effects of relocation on training and motivation. I’ve found that relocation (if not for training purposes) can be very difficult on an athlete in terms of generating self-motivation to get out the door and finding new training partners and training venues. I found it quite difficult to self-motivate at the begining but I’ve found that getting into a routine really helps. Regaining consistency should be a primary focus of those of you who are planning on moving and don’t despair. You’ll be mentally tougher if you have to fend on your own for a bit and will only enjoy the company of training mates even more when you find some.

In mid-June the Toronto Orienteering Club put on a great series of training sessions to showcase the diversity of training possibilities in the city. Each training session highlighted an important aspect of orienteering: using your attackpoint, taking proper compass bearings, reading ahead, and running! Suffice it to say that to sharpen all these skills required a lot of work and overall the weekend was a huge success. My favourite sessions were the sprint exercises on the Toronto islands. For those who know me know that I enjoy fast paced running and the sprint training did not disappoint. It was a blast meeting a number of fellow HPP members and see a part of the city in a whole new light. Now that I’m living in the city I plan on taking advantage of what Toronto has to offer. I highly recommend the Toronto Island sprint maps and will see you next in Ottawa for the COCs.

It's a wrap at JWOC 2010

Congratulations to Damian Konotopetz, Colin Abbott, Graeme Rennie, Lee Hawkings, Emily Kemp and Emily Ross for representing Canada so well at the 2010 Junior World Orienteering Championships. And also a very special thanks to Jeff Teutsch as assistant team leader and Randy Kemp as team leader. Here are a few pictures from Team Canada as they wrap up their week in Denmark.

The whole gang:


Emily Kemp after her 7th place in leg one:


Getting ready for the banquet!

JWOC Middle Distance

JWOC 2010: Middle Distance Final

After an exciting qualifier yesterday in which Colin and Graeme squeaked into the B final by a single placing each, Damian missed the A final by one second, Lee missed the B final by seconds, and Emily Kemp qualified convincingly for the A final, it was time to lay it all on the line in the last individual race of the week, the Middle finals.

Emily Ross, beating down the grass on her way to finishing the B final.

Lee Hawkings running under a blue, blue Danish sky.

Typical Danish sand-dune terrain, fast, flat and tricky navigation.

Emily Kemp, leaving the start in the A final

Spectator control, Emily overtaking a Norwegian!

The final result in the Women's A final, 13th place for Emily Kemp!

Interview with Emily Kemp at the finish of her race.

All in all, it was a good day for the Canadians. Damian and Colin finished 75th and 81st respectively, Graeme was 95th, Lee was 132nd, Emily Kemp was 13th and Emily Ross was 111th.

Stay tuned for an update after the Relay! Emily Kemp and Emily Ross are running with a Japanese girl. The men's team will consist of Damian, Colin and Graeme and Lee will be running with two Germans.

JWOC 2010

Denmark 2010: Sprint and Long Distance

The team getting ready for the opening ceremonies

Lee nailing the spectator control, first runner for Canada on the sprint

Emily Ross, running her first JWOC race ever!

Emily Kemp, pushing hard on her way to a 55th place finish.

Graeme Rennie finishing the sprint.

Colin Abbott finishing hard.

Damian getting started on a 75th place finish in the sprint. Top North American!

Damian finishing the long, 90th place and top North American second day running!

For results, live results, pictures and updates on JWOC link to: http://www.jwoc2010.dk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=103&Itemid=70

North American Championships: Pre-Game Show

It is the eve of the North American Orienteering Championships! Nearly 500 racers have gathered in Cranbrook, British Columbia for the biannual race. Competitors will race for individual North American glory, and in the ME and WE classes, for the Bjorn Kjellstrom Cup!

The Program

Friday, July 2 - Middle, WRE - Cranbrook Community Forest

Saturday, July 3 - Long, WRE - Cranbrook Community Forest

Sunday, July 4 - Sprint, WRE - College of the Rockies

The Model Event

The model event opened yesterday. The terrain is a nice mix of fast, dry forest with some rocky footing and some areas of technical rock and contour detail.

You can run on the model map in Catching Features or check it out below:

Spectators

All the NAOC events have been designed to highlight the World Ranking Event athletes in M21E and W21E. Spectator controls, radio controls and race announcing will provide excitement and entertainment in the arena. To allow as many participants as possible to be able to watch these racers, 10 – 15 top ranked runners will be seeded in a “red group” that will start late.

Bjorn Kjellstrom Cup

In addition to the competition for individual medals, Team Canada and Team USA will reignite their rivalry over the Bjorn Kjellstrom Cup! The Cup is awarded to either team based on results in the ME and WE classes.

Points are awarded to the top 15 finishers in each of ME and WE according the following points system: 1st - 25, 2nd- 22, 3rd -19, 4th -16, 5th -13, 6th -10, 7th -9, 8th - 8, 9th - 7, 10th -6, 11th -5, 12th -4, 13th -3, 14th -2, and 15th -1. The top 3 finishers for each country in ME and WE in each of the three races is used to determine the overall points total. Points are totaled for each of the sprint, middle and long distance races.

In the last 15 NAOC’s (going back to 1980 in Cleveland) Canada has won 14 times and the US (just) once. Canada has won the last 13 times. Pam James is on the trophy 11 times, Mike Waddington 6 times, Ted de St. Croix 5 times and Mark Adams 4 times!

More info on the NAOC website.