Discussion: JWOC 2009

I was looking at the JWOC website to see if they had any kind of online audio or video. I sent an email to the organizers and the answer was "online results are available", which really didn't answer my question.

So---I don't know what will be available. Has anyone seen any information? In past years people from all over were following their teams at JWOC, so I know there is some interest.

World of O has some JWOC coverage and links.

{edit}

Here is a World of O article JWOC 2009: Official training week started that says, "World of O is planning to cover the JWOC with live blogs similar to NOC and Jukola." (It's a live *interactive* blog, so there is a back-and-forth aspect to it. The one Jan did for Jukola was really good.)

Ultimate Orienteering has a JWOC 2009: what should you know? page.

Here is the JWOC Attackpoint listing.

Acampbell's blog

AUSJWOC2009 Attackpoint blog

Official JWOC Photo Galleries

JWOC Live Results

New Zealand JWOC Blog

IOF News

Matt, thank you for your interest in following the team at JWOC. I have been dealing with these organizers for months now and it is a wonder that I'm not bald at this point from pulling out my hair in frustration. They are in over their heads and are sunked in my book. I have dealt with organizers for a number of years now as our Junior Team adminstrator and these guys are the worst. I just hope that all goes well once the competitions start. Forget getting any help or good info from them about live coverage. I have been texting Boris and will see if he can get me any info to post here on AP for all to have. It is to late now to text him but I will do so first thing tomorrow morning. One of the girls, Alison Campbell has a personnal blog and just updated it today for their week of training. You can read it at www.theacrace.blogspot.com It is a really nice blog that she started right before she left and has lots of personal info about her summer plans aboard. It is good to see all that our juniors are doing.

In anyone overseas has any ideas as to how else to find the live coverage please let us know.

Hi there,
I am one of the two JWOC speakers, the other one being Timo Teinila from Finland. I have also been wondering a lot about live coverage but have to admit we haven't received any info either... Anyway: we are both leaving in couple of hours to Primiero and will have a technical meeting on Saturday evening, where we should get introduced to the radio controls' system etc - there we should for sure get some infos about live coverage. As I promised in the UO article, as soon as I know something about live coverage I'll post it.
Well do our best - and if the whole crew is as motivated as the whole "sound" team, then I don't see anything to worry about... :)

Lucie

Lucie, thank you for the great news. I hope that you arrive to a great set up and everything ready to go. Any and everything that you can post for those of us waiting for it would be great. I know for a fact that internet access has been limited and a problem so far. I would suggest taking a laptop if you have one and hope that you can find wifi but that could be a problem as well. Best of luck and enjoy your trip to Primiero.

Here are the event times converted into times in several world cities. (I assume Europeans can figure out the conversion from CET trivially.) If you need a city not on my list, you can use this link, and click "change cities".

Primiero, Italy
Monday July 6th 15:00-18:20 CET Sprint Final (No Qual)
Tuesday July 7th 10:00-16:45 CET Long Final (No Qual)
Thursday July 9th 09:00-12:00 CET Middle Qual
Friday July 10th 10:10-12:45 CET Middle A Final (B/C-Final 09:00)
Saturday July 11th 14:30-16_45 CET Relay

NYC
Monday July 6th 9:00am-12:20pm Sprint Final (No Qual)
Tuesday July 7th 4:00am-10:45am Long Final (No Qual)
Thursday July 9th 3:00am-6:00am Middle Qual
Friday July 10th 4:10am-6:45am Middle A Final (B/C-Final 3:00am)
Saturday July 11th 8:30am-10:45am Relay

Los Angeles
Monday July 6th 6:00am-9:20am Sprint Final (No Qual)
Tuesday July 7th 1:00am-7:45am Long Final (No Qual)
Thursday July 9th midnight(Wed-Thurs)-3:00am Middle Qual
Friday July 10th 1:10am-3:45am Middle A Final (B/C-Final earlier---midnight)
Saturday July 11th 5:30am-7:45am Relay

Sydney
Monday July 6th 23:00-02:20(Tues) Sprint Final (No Qual)
Tuesday July 7th 18:00-00:45(Wed) Long Final (No Qual)
Thursday July 9th 17:00-20:00 Middle Qual
Friday July 10th 18:10-20:45 Middle A Final (B/C-Final 17:00)
Saturday July 11th 22:30-00:45(Sun) Relay

Hong Kong; Perth
Monday July 6th 21:00-00:20(Tues) Sprint Final (No Qual)
Tuesday July 7th 16:00-22:45 Long Final (No Qual)
Thursday July 9th 15:00-18:00 Middle Qual
Friday July 10th 16:10-18:45 Middle A Final (B/C-Final 15:00)
Saturday July 11th 20:30-22:45 Relay

Hi there,
We discussed yesterday with the "big boss" and we got the answers we were waiting for:
- there will be online-results, the Swiss technical team which is working on them is really a great one, nothing to worry about!
- there will be a big screen in the competition arena showing all the intermediate times, but no video.
- they will try to put a streaming for the speaker sound, but if it is too problematic they will focus on intermediate online-results only. They will do their best!
True, communication isn't always that easy but once you make yourself understood, the organizers are simply adorable and incredibly effective.
Cheers,
Lucie

Some sprint photos have been posted at the JWOC Picasa Photo Page.

And World of O has an article with the sprint maps.

JWOC official site article --- Sprint Maps with M/F top three winning routes and Long Start List

Go team USA....they are putting up some awesome results this year!

Alison and Holly both in the top half of the women's field and 27th for Emily Kemp. Congratulations!! The men's race is still going on...

I believe Emily's 27th placing is the top ever finish by a Canadian at JWOC. Peter Mackenzie did 32nd in the classic in 1993 (also Italy!); and I think Gabor Lipcsey also did 32nd in the Short Distance (A-Final) in 1998 in France. I think Angela's run was quite great too!

Sprint photo 80 - is that Greg, Gabe or John (sorry, they look similar to me...)? My first impression is Greg, but I know some others here would know better.

According to the start list (and the bib numbers on the runners around him) this should be John Williams...

That's JHW. Gabe is in #114. Alison in #17, and Tori and Kelsey in #46.

JWOC Official Long Results and Maps with winners' routes

(Includes a link for split times)

JWOC Long Results (for AUS, CAN, and USA):

Men

001 BERGMAN Gustav SWE 1:05:55
002 BOBACH Søren DEN 1:09:19
003 HUBMANN Martin SUI 1:09:25

035 DOW Lachlan AUS 1:29:26
057 BLATCHFORD Joshua AUS 1:34:17
066 KEELY Leon AUS 1:37:36
093 FAGG Callum AUS 1:45:55
095 ABBOTT Colin CAN 1:46:21
099 NEVE Max AUS 1:47:44
106 CHILDS Andrew USA 1:51:26
111 GOODWIN John USA 1:55:50
114 KONOTOPETZ Damian CAN 1:56:18
117 WILLIAMS John USA 1:57:07
124 EREAUX Graham CAN 2:01:34
132 HAWKINGS Lee CAN 2:12:25
130 ALHSWEDE Greg USA 2:08:35
139 RENNIE Graeme CAN 2:32:00
142 SVOBODNY Gabriel USA 2:33:48
999 KEMP Eric CAN DSQ
999 LYONS Nathanial USA DSQ

Women

001 BOBACH Ida DEN 54:12
002 LÖNNKVIST Jenny SWE 55:33
003 TEINI Marika FIN 56:28

027 KEMP Emily CAN 1:04:05
057 CAMPBELL Alison USA 1:15:34
059 KUESTNER Holly USA 1:16:44
065 ANDERSON Bridget AUS 1:19:42
066 NEUMANN Krystal AUS 1:20:43
075 BURRILL Lilian AUS 1:27:08
077 PRENDERGAST Aislinn AUS 1:29:05
081 BORISH Tori USA 1:32:35
083 LAWFORD Belinda AUS 1:33:38
098 SHAFER-SKELTON Anna USA 1:49:23
110 BRESEMAN Kelsey USA 2:14:24

That map looks like a lot of fun, but the course setting looks dreadful.
Unless I'm missing something, there's very little route choice and way too many short legs - for example, look at the women's race from control 9 to the finish.

There are several JWOC articles and photos at the IOF website.

FYI, the bib numbers are different for every event.

Middle Qual Start Lists are up. (Direct link: pdf)

Excellent result for Emily Kemp today in the middle distance qualifier!

Referring back to a discussion about start procedures. On Middle Qual, is my assumption that the road run from start square to start triangle was with map and on the clock? Can anyone explain rationale for that? "Course study time?" Even after start triangle, several heats stayed on the road for a while.

Despite that, times were very slow based on 20 minute winning time projection. Vegetation and footing perhaps, or just a bit too long and steep?

JWOC Sprint and Long splits are available on WinSplits
http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/en/default.a...

Re the Long design-
Amen. Thank you feet!

About one month ago, when I read the Long course specs, which showed the overload of controls, I was tempted to post something, but descretion said, better wait.

Granted, this area has constraints, but geez...With average leg lengths of 317/328m, these were Middle style courses, and they didn't have to be.

These courses were obsessed with maximizing the technical difficulty, which is not what the Long format is about. As if the women didn't have enough stupid short legs, at least they didn't have a short winged butterfly like the men, which will doom just about any course, in my opinion, while creating at least as many packs as are broken up.

On the positive side I think the routings were at least OK, with the women's routing close to optimal.

Ricka- I think most would agree that this Start-1 opening is not ideal, but I am willing to believe there is a logistical justification for this "lost distance".

The core terrain used for the Middle Qual looks very difficult to access. The Start needs to relatively high, and needs to be associated with a dropoff/parking/assembly area from which to stage the Start. The switchback road up the east side of the terrain does not appear to provide any obvious options. The ski area(?), roadside field and long W-E trail may have been the only option, and this extended run to trangle and #1 was simply part of the solution to get the runners to the terrain.

In general I think these MidQual courses were very good examples of Middle design in less than ideal terrain. This terrain's main attribute is that it makes a good partner (probably sharing the same Finish) with the anticipated MidFinal terrain which appears exceptional, although also steep, judging by the previous map.

Actually, it looks like the Final might use the same Start staging area as today's Qual, but without a long stretch to the triangle.

Middle Distance - The women's "C" final had only 5 runners. Isn't this kind of ridiculous? IOF should look at some minimum number for creating a third group and just add the 5 to the "B" final... or move up 2 to "A" and 3 to "B". We'd be talking about lengthening the start interval by just a few minutes.

If A and B finals are supposed to have a max of 60, why not say that if there are less than 10 runners assigned to C, the C should be merged into B, with A and B finals expanded up to 65 each.

Surely these numbers could have been anticipated at least days and possibly weeks before the actual events.

I agree with Mike. Maybe 5 was their threshold # to hold the C-Final; but 10 or 12 would seem more logical to me. It would be interesting to hear the rationale. Great run for Emily!

The (preliminary) Relay Start list is now up. It's great that the relay starts at 8:30am Eastern time (8:40am for the ladies). It was tough getting up at 3am two days in a row, to cheer for the North Americans. The excitement of preparing to hit Refresh after another two minute interval (their usual update rate) had passed, hoping to see the next name at the next Radio control, was intoxicating.

I've listened to the live audio streaming the last two mornings, which has been very nice. I'm not sure why, but the race sounds much more exciting when the announcers are speaking in a language other than English (if only I could understand them).

Totally agree on the poor course planning for the long. When I first saw the maps, I thought this is Middle Distance! No route choice, no long legs, just technical detail. What was the IOF Controller doing?

Several races (Sprint and Long only at this point) have been uploaded to Winsplits Online.

Can someone explain how the 0.20/20% "conditions for a mistake" (pink color) works? I want to try some different settings, but I can't figure out what the two numbers do.

looks like the Canadian men all managed to have solid races in the relay, beating both the Australian and American teams and managing not to mispunch. Good work everybody, it looks like both North American teams managed to improve upon their results from the previous year.

I sent an email to Winsplits help regarding the "conditions for a mistake" question (2 posts above), and I got the following response:

The first number is a time (minutes.seconds) rather than a decimal number. The following is an excerpt from the help pages of WinSplits Online:

Time without mistakes
The split time data gives opportunities to make time loss calculations. By default, legs where a runner loses more than 30 seconds or 25 percent more than usually are counted as mistakes. A time without mistakes is with other words the time that the runner would have had if he/she had not made any
mistakes on the leg.

Time loss is calculated according to the following method. The runner's difference to the best time on each leg is calculated. The median value of these differences is the "normalized" performance of the runner. The mistake conditions then decide how much worse than the median value a split time difference should be to be counted as a mistake. A length correction is also done. As mistakes most often occur at the controls, they are not as clear on long legs as on short ones. The mistake conditions hold exactly at normal leg lengths.

If the mistake conditions are fulfilled, the time without mistakes is
calculated by adding the median difference for the legs where no mistakes have been made multiplied by the best split time to the best split time, i e the following formula is used:

t = (100 + md) / 100 * b

where t is the time without mistakes, md is the median difference to the best split time in percent for the legs with no time loss, and b is the best split time."

Best regards,
Mats Troeng
WinSplits developer