Team JWOC doing a little cross training

A view out Emma S and Pia's window...

Go Canada!

Canada's JWOC 2016 team is on-site in Ftan, Switzerland

The JWOC 2016 team converged on Ftan, Switzerland, traveling variously by car, bus and train (one car took the northern route from Zürich through Austria, and owing to a missed turn, ended up in Nanders - we almost added Italy to our list of countries visited). We all arrived safely in time for dinner and celebrated Emma's birthday with two Black Forest cakes! We're not sure why Jeff appears overwhelmed.

Tomorrow we will pick up our training maps in Scuol, and then get our first taste of the forest in the Engadin Valley.

The accommodations at the Hochalpines Institut Ftan are excellent, and the food so far has been plentiful and tasty. The Canadian team has one wing on the third floor all to ourselves.

Go Canada!

Canadian and US teams about to start running in Jukola 2016

There are four North American teams registered this year in the world's largest relay race - Jukola. At 23:00 Finland time (13:00 PDT, 16:00 EDT) on Saturday, June 18,  there will be a mass start of 1717 teams, running seven legs each through the night. If you want to follow the action, go to http://www.jukola.com/2016/en/live/. The two Canadian teams are from Ottawa (team #380) and the Yukon (team #384).

Here is the Yukon team, in running order from left to right: Pia Blake, Leif Blake, Forest Pearson, Jennifer MacKeigan, Ross Burnett, Svante Larsson, and Caelan McLean. Go Yukon!

Other teams to watch are the two US teams: Cambridge (team 230) and the US Junior Team (team 1701).

Earlier today, the all-woman Venla relay ran with 1345 4-person teams. Some well-known Canadians were running for European teams: Emily Kemp ran the anchor for Angelniemen Ankkuri (team 46) which placed 20th (she will also be running for the Ottawa team!) and Louise Oram ran anchor for Bäkkelagets SK 2 (team 365) which placed 60th. Amazing performances!

Go Canada! Go USA!

JWOC athlete update from Jan Erik Naess

Canadian JWOC athlete Jan Erik Naess was recently training in Hamilton before he heads over to Europe to get ready to compete at the Junior World Orienteering Championships in Switzerland July 9-15. Click on the image below to go to Jan Erik's personal blog and read about his recent training in Hamilton.

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2016 High Performance Program Silent Auction at the Canadian Orienteering Championships!

While the Canadian Orienteering Championships (COCs) are still 6 weeks away, we wanted to let everyone know that the High Performance Program Silent Auction will be held in conjunction with the COC banquet on Sunday, July 31st.

This is the main fundraiser each year for the High Performance Program. The last few years we have brought in around $4000! The money goes directly towards support athletes, such as through helping with training camps and having coaches.

Donations from the general orienteering community (and their networks) are very welcome, so we thank you for your consideration and generosity! If you aren’t coming to the COCs, you can arrange to send your item with someone who is (who’s attending is listed here). 

  

If you'd like to donate something, but don't have any ideas, here are a few suggestions:

·     Can your club donate an entry to an upcoming event?

·     Are you a crafter  – can you donate something like a pair of home- made mittens, hat, pottery?

·     Are you a foodie – can you donate a jar of home-made jam or a batch of cookies or granola?

·     Do you have a cabin that you could donate a gift certificate for a weekend or a week’s stay at?

·     Are you an artist – do you have a sketch of an orienteering scene, or a great photograph that you could put in a frame?

·     Could you ask your local running/sport store to donate an item?

·     A map or piece of clothing autographed by an orienteering celebrity

·     New orienteering clothes (or a used item signed by an orienteering celebrity, worn by an O celeb in a high profile race, etc.)

·     Any other skills that you could offer to help coach someone in?

If you have any questions, please email Emily Ross at emily.s.r@gmail.com. Please let her know if you are planning on bringing something so we can start to get a sense of what items will be donated as well as start hyping some of the big ticket items. Thank you for all of your support of the High Performance Program and we look forward to seeing you at the Icefields Parkway Orienteering Festival!

JWOC 2016 preview

Just a few weeks are left before the JWOC training camp and JWOC in Scuol, Switzerland. The teams members are busy training for peak performance July 9-15!

The team this year has a mix of JWOC veterans and some new faces, with first-time JWOC coach Jeff Teutsch at the helm. Sabine Schweiger is the team leader. Erik Blake (that's me) will be keeping you up to date, and assisting Sabine.

Below is the team list. You can click on the athletes' name to view their athlete profile:

• Pia Blake (Whitehorse, YT)
• Emma Sherwood (Calgary, AB)
• Emma Waddington (Hamilton, ON)
• Nicole Whitmore (Hamilton, ON)

• Leif Blake (Whitehorse, YT)
• Robert Graham (Ottawa, ON)
• Caelan McLean (Whitehorse, YT)
• Christian Michelsen (Dundas, ON)
• Jan Erik Naess (Chicago, IL/Hamilton, ON)
• Michael Svoboda (Calgary, AB)

• Tomas Graham (Ottawa, ON) - alternate

If you want to follow what's happening, you can go to the JWOC web site at www.jwoc2016.ch. We'll be updating you on the athletes' progress for each race, so stay tuned to this blog. I'll also be posting on twitter with the hashtag #jwoc2016can - I invite others to do so too!

Go Canada!

4th at European Champs Middle!!!

I can hardly believe it myself! And to think that last Friday I was sprawled on the floor in Stockholm airport for the second day in a row seriously considering giving up and trying to get a flight back to Turku. Arlanda airport turned into complete chaos when the air traffic control system broke down and flights got cancelled left, right and center. Part of the British, Hungarian team and I found ourselves at the mercy of Scandinavian Airlines waiting for hours to be rebooked just to have our flight cancelled again. It certainly felt like I was never going to make it to Jesenik but a ginormous thanks to the British Team who delivered me sane and in one piece right to my accommodation at 3:00am… 44 hours after leaving my home in Turku.

Beautiful terrain waiting for us in the Middle Qualifier. Photo: Will Critchley

A week later I’m standing at the start line of the middle final and incredibly happy just to be there! We were expecting a tough race technically as well as physically and we definitely weren’t disappointed. We were thrown directly into a steep, rocky hillside with vague vegetation to try and survive the first few controls with minimal time loss. If you’ve seen the photo on the Orienteering Canada Facebook page you might be wondering why it looks like I took a bath in a mud pit. The start triangle was in a marsh and as I was running through I tripped on a stone and sent a wave of muddy swamp water up into my face. Cue frantically trying to wipe it out of my eyes in order to read the map!

Up to the 6^th control I had quite a few hesitations in the circle when I didn’t have concrete attack points and was therefore playing my luck to recognize the features in the circle and see the flag. It wasn’t the technique that I was going for but at least I was able to stop in the circle, fit the map to the terrain and find the control from there.

Photo: Iveta Malá

Tove Alexandersson was starting 2 minutes behind me and I heard the first crackle of branches at the 6^th control but resolved to keep my focus ahead no matter what. She came roaring through at the 10^th control and there was no keeping up with that train! Physically I was not feeling at the top of my game and it was everything that I could do to keep pushing despite the burning in my legs and my lungs. It really felt like I was at the limit of what I could do physically while still keeping my navigation together. I was walking that fine line between running an aggressive race and running into oblivion. Which is why I nearly got lost going to the go-control (Will agrees that it was surprisingly difficult).

Photo: Iveta Malá

My objectives for running these European Champs were to get a feel for delivering good races under high pressure and to see how I compared to the best in the world. This result is super positive feedback and I can keep training with confidence knowing that I’ve been doing something right this year so far. I even got the interesting but exciting experience of having my very own awards ceremony after the EOC podiums. When you find yourself alone beside the podium just smile and wave!

We wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of the EOC organizers who worked so hard to put together such a great week of racing. Challenging races, beautiful terrain, team leader meetings with no funny business, rides from the arena back to the quarantine to pick up our car, unlimited water for when I had to go through doping control… we’ll certainly keep many fond memories from our time in Jesenik, Czech Republic.

Photo: Léa Vercellotti