Discussion: 2013 World Games

Nice to see the USA on the list for the first time.

IOF story.

Will there be Team Trials?

Not so nice to see Australia missing :(

Well Australia didn't make it into this World Series either.

Did Orienteering Australia management recognise the farce of this competition and not bother to nominate, or were we just lucky in not being invited?

Seems that countries selected were based on results at WOC12. The top 13 teams were invited plus the host country (Columbia). The remaining spots then went to the best team in each IOF region. Since NZ was better than Oz, NZ got the Oceania spot. Similarly, US outperformed CAN at WOC12, so US got invite for North America. Brazil for South America, RSA for Africa, etc.

Judging from previous results, competition seemed pretty high with names like Simone, Tero, Minna and Hubmann among the medalists.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orienteering_at_the_W...

It DOES seem a farce, though one that that 2nd-world orienteering countries can make publicity capital from. I mean, compare "36th place in the World Champs" with "36th place in the World Games", and yet your local media doesn't know the difference.

Why is it a farce?

Because the kiwis were selected over the Aussies? ;-)

Nothing good ever came out of New Zealand.

Thanks for posting that question lazydave. I was wondering the very same thing! Grant Bluett's magnificent gold medal in 2001 a distant memory? The current OA President, in a guest Editorial December 2001 described 2001 as "a great leap forward in Australian Elite Orienteering" - nothing to suggest anything farcical at the time. I find the word "farce" challenging to accept Hawkeye?

Even with out Frogga's break through victory or Hanny's success I can't think of a reason why it would be considered a farce.

Is Hawkeye referring to the qulaification? The non-qualification is a result of our performances, not the criteria

I suspect that Greg may be referring to the "Consolation prize for sports we won't accept into the real Olympics" aspect. ie the second class Olympics that gets no media coverage.
Or the idea of creating orienteering maps in Columbia?

The 2009 World Games were an amazing experience (even as coach) and it is a real shame to see Australia won't be competing, especially after we won gold, silver and finished 4th in the mixed relay last time.

Sammy's got it pretty much right. The key decision-makers were pretty insistent that qualification would be by country (apart from the personal places for World Champions) rather than by individual for the more 'discretionary' spots (IOF had already committed to teams of 2 men/2 women for the leading 13 countries at WOC 2012, plus Colombia). Still, there aren't too many obvious anomalies - the only top-10 finisher at WOC 2012 whose country wasn't selected is Kiril Nikolov, and his top-10 result was in an event (long distance) which isn't in the World Games.

Maybe IOF should consider to change relay competition format with 4 persons in a team. Sweden and many other countries earned 2+2 spots but Brazil, USA and China got 2+2 as the best country in IOF region. Maybe relay format with only 2 persons/2 runs could be better option as in this way we could have 3 additional countries at WG. IOF strategy to promote orienteering on world stage wouldn't be affected but in same time the qualification rules would be fairer to Italy, Bulgaria and Spain.

I think Hawkeye is pissed off because he is about the only Tasmanian not on the 2013 WG organising committee.

whats the IOF mapping symbol for a cocaine plantation?

Well given that the woods are likely green I suspect the white area symbol might be a perfect symbol.

Scratch'n'sniff?

So how is the U.S. team going to be determined... what if more than 2 men and/or more than 2 women want to go? or is this question purely hypothetical?

Battle to the death.

Given that it's in Columbia surely the way would be for a small consideration to be offered to the person in charge?

Both. Bribe before, battle to the death afterwards.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9s_Escobar

The battle to the death is to decide who gets on the US team since they don't seem to believe in selection races.