Discussion: Update on WUOC
in: Orienteering; General
Jun 24, 2004 4:31 PM
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Hello Everyone! I am sorry I have not been as active in giving updates on the event! It has been a busy week so far and will probably not slow down much either.
The team is doing great! We are all having fun and enjoying a different atmosphere for orienteering. All nations are in the same accomodations, we as a team all in the same hall way. This is a great set up because we can converse and interact with everyone. Everyone is friendly. There is a huge tent out side that sells a varity of refreshments and is popular for watching the European champs in soccer.
Okay, but now about the orienteering. Yesterdays long course was technical and rocky, with patch work of dark green, light green (actually fairly runnable) and open which which is fast sometimes, and sometime has tall grass that slows the foot speed down. There are also open fields and rides. The courses never gave you a chance to relax. A huge reentrant made by a fairly large river cut the map in half, and most of our climb was spend crossing this section. The other parts of the map had small oval contour hills (2 contours high) with sprinlked rocks and cliffs. Very interesting and often also beautiful (when not green).
We had two injuries, Jerre got a thron in his eye that he was unable to get out without medical attention. He vision was blurry for most of the day. But has recovered quickly. Andrew twisted his "good" ankle which is now recovering in his rest day. Viktoria unfortunatly miss punched. This can not go without saying that several other people hurt themselves out there, it was a tough area.
The rest of us did well! I personally was fairly happy with my course. I did however make about 4 min of error. My tempo however pleased me, the feel of the race was overall positive. My placement was a bit of a dissapointment, but not too bad.
Today was the sprint race. There were many disqualifications due to close controls. I was very pleased and proud that NONE of us miss punched. We stressed the importance of checking your codes for a sprint and it was wise.
The race started in a complex area of high rise appartments, parking lots, foot paths and roads. It then transitioned into a wooded slope and up again into a town park. The first section took a lot of concentration and went by quick, the next in the woods was where a lot of people lost time (including me, 30-45 sec.) and the park was just painful because you could push yourself to the limit. Although I believe those who didnt go over their limit in this section were also the ones who we less likely to miss punch. This is where the control were very close together. I personally hardley ever saw the men's controls, but afterwards saw that they were always on neighboring (or some times even on the same) feature.
Overall everyone liked the format, although Michael and Jerre said that they had trouble in the bit in town. They were not used to reading building instead of contours and vegitation. The sections in the park went smoother for them.
Hillary and Viktoria like it as well and said that they would do even better next time just simply by understand how it is. They both made some mistakes. I also made two mistakes which cost me at least 30-45 sec and I certainly lost time because of foot speed, but I am happy with my race and my placement.
Now, tomorrow is the middle distance event. I get a day rest (much needed) and Sam and Matt get their first races. I am looking forward to how we do.
I hope everyone is checking out the web site, they post results quickly along with pictures. The web site is http://orientacnibeh.cz/english/wuoch2004/
Thanks for all the support and I will try to give another update soon (there are long lines for the internet).
with kind regards,
Sandra Zurcher
The team is doing great! We are all having fun and enjoying a different atmosphere for orienteering. All nations are in the same accomodations, we as a team all in the same hall way. This is a great set up because we can converse and interact with everyone. Everyone is friendly. There is a huge tent out side that sells a varity of refreshments and is popular for watching the European champs in soccer.
Okay, but now about the orienteering. Yesterdays long course was technical and rocky, with patch work of dark green, light green (actually fairly runnable) and open which which is fast sometimes, and sometime has tall grass that slows the foot speed down. There are also open fields and rides. The courses never gave you a chance to relax. A huge reentrant made by a fairly large river cut the map in half, and most of our climb was spend crossing this section. The other parts of the map had small oval contour hills (2 contours high) with sprinlked rocks and cliffs. Very interesting and often also beautiful (when not green).
We had two injuries, Jerre got a thron in his eye that he was unable to get out without medical attention. He vision was blurry for most of the day. But has recovered quickly. Andrew twisted his "good" ankle which is now recovering in his rest day. Viktoria unfortunatly miss punched. This can not go without saying that several other people hurt themselves out there, it was a tough area.
The rest of us did well! I personally was fairly happy with my course. I did however make about 4 min of error. My tempo however pleased me, the feel of the race was overall positive. My placement was a bit of a dissapointment, but not too bad.
Today was the sprint race. There were many disqualifications due to close controls. I was very pleased and proud that NONE of us miss punched. We stressed the importance of checking your codes for a sprint and it was wise.
The race started in a complex area of high rise appartments, parking lots, foot paths and roads. It then transitioned into a wooded slope and up again into a town park. The first section took a lot of concentration and went by quick, the next in the woods was where a lot of people lost time (including me, 30-45 sec.) and the park was just painful because you could push yourself to the limit. Although I believe those who didnt go over their limit in this section were also the ones who we less likely to miss punch. This is where the control were very close together. I personally hardley ever saw the men's controls, but afterwards saw that they were always on neighboring (or some times even on the same) feature.
Overall everyone liked the format, although Michael and Jerre said that they had trouble in the bit in town. They were not used to reading building instead of contours and vegitation. The sections in the park went smoother for them.
Hillary and Viktoria like it as well and said that they would do even better next time just simply by understand how it is. They both made some mistakes. I also made two mistakes which cost me at least 30-45 sec and I certainly lost time because of foot speed, but I am happy with my race and my placement.
Now, tomorrow is the middle distance event. I get a day rest (much needed) and Sam and Matt get their first races. I am looking forward to how we do.
I hope everyone is checking out the web site, they post results quickly along with pictures. The web site is http://orientacnibeh.cz/english/wuoch2004/
Thanks for all the support and I will try to give another update soon (there are long lines for the internet).
with kind regards,
Sandra Zurcher
Jun 24, 2004 6:15 PM
#
Great
results
Sandra!
23rd of 60 in the Sprint and even 41 of 67 in the Long are great results for a US competitor at any (Non-Masters) World Champs or World Cup!
results
Sandra!
23rd of 60 in the Sprint and even 41 of 67 in the Long are great results for a US competitor at any (Non-Masters) World Champs or World Cup!
Jun 24, 2004 6:26 PM
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Number of controls on sprint courses is astonishing! One per 100-150 m or so.
Go USA!
PS. Very good result by William! Go Australia!
Go USA!
PS. Very good result by William! Go Australia!
Jun 24, 2004 6:49 PM
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Great job everyone!
Based on the photos, the middle distance looks like it is going to rock! Good luck!
Based on the photos, the middle distance looks like it is going to rock! Good luck!
Jun 25, 2004 5:02 PM
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The Sprint splits were a great read too - oops, lost 5 second, so I'm 52nd place on the leg, instead of 3rd...
Jun 25, 2004 6:26 PM
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lizk:
The middle distance results are up now. It looks like everyone ran hard today! Especially good results for Leif and Samantha (52:40 and 57:15).
You can also see pix of Hillary, Samantha, and the team on pp. 2 and 5 of the photos today; yesterday they posted two of David Howald (this month's ONA cover boy) running the sprint.
You can also see pix of Hillary, Samantha, and the team on pp. 2 and 5 of the photos today; yesterday they posted two of David Howald (this month's ONA cover boy) running the sprint.
This discussion thread is closed.