Discussion: Team USA at the World Masters

The World Masters started yesterday in Bad Harzburg, Germany. Here is the list of participants --



Yesterday (Sunday) was the qualifying for the Sprint. The math depends on how many are entered in each class, but in most cases roughly 80 go in the A final, the next 80 in the B final, and so on. For the qualifying, a class is split up into heats of at most 80. So, for example, if there are 300 in a class, there will be 4 qualifying heats and the top 20 in each heat will make the A final. There are also B (and C, D, E, and F) finals as necessary.

Results are here. There were 8 making the A final --

Angelica Riley, 8th in W40, heat 2
Pavlina Brautigam, 4th in W50 heat 3.
Linda Kohn, 18th in W60, heat 3
Sharon Crawford, 12th in W65, heat 3
Greg Balter, 16th in M45, heat 2
Sergey Velichko, 4th in M50, heat 4
Peter Gagarin, 3rd in M65, heat 1
Dennis Wildfogel, 12th in M65, heat 4

The sprint finals are this afternoon in the city of Goslar.

The courses can be seen on RouteGadget here.

Is there any talk at WMOC about what is happening with the event in 2013? It is supposed to be held in conjunction with the 2013 WMG in Turin, Italy in August. However the WMG website just says this about the sport: "Orienteering – To be defined" The one venue they have identified for orienteering might marginably be suitable for a middle, not likely a sprint and definitely not a long event.

Gordhun - there is a big palava in Italy currently at the mo about that one (or at least there was about a month ago). One of the GB vets lives there and the first thing to know is that Italian O is always very last minute (which I know doesn't help with travelling from afar). He's madmike on the nopesport forums - I would PM him for more info. There's a few threads on it there too.

Cool, good luck all! The final is right now, I think...

It is surprising that they decided to hold the WMOC in Bad Harzburg. Why couldn't they have held it in Sublime Harzburg, or at least Nice Harzburg? Oh well, maybe you can at least take a bath at the spa.

Good luck to everyone, especially the A-finalers! Thanks for the updates, PG - please keep them coming!

Go USA!!!

No medals, but three top-10s today in the sprint final, with Pavlina the closest, finishing 4th in W50. Sharon was 8th in W65 and I was 9th in M65. I'll add the others shortly.

Typical European city sprint, though perhaps less complicated than normal. Cool, light rain at times. I think Pavlina missed a medal by about 10 seconds.

The Italians are distributing brooches about WMOC2013, located near Sestrier, way NW Italy, 2 to 3 hours from Turin. No idea if that means anything as far as what might actually happen. I'll post a copy of the brochure and you can judge for yourselves.

Here are all our results in the A finals --

Pavlina, 4th in W50 A (missed medal by 13 seconds)
Sharon, 8th in W65 A (missed medal by 45 seconds)
Peter, 9th in M65 A (missed medal by 52 seconds)
Angelica, 18th in W40 A
Sergey, 28th in M50 A
Linda, 41st in W 60 A
Dennis, 52nd in M65 A
Greg, 57th in M45 A

I'll fill in results from the rest, but I'm not sure if results are complete from a couple of courses, and anyway dinner is ready. :-)

Pretty good from our contingent of 20. Realizing, of course, that the proper way to look at the big picture is that the junior team exists to prepare for a better senior team, and the senior team exists to prepare for a better masters team, and the masters team, well, it's put up or shut up time.... :-)

Would have been nice to have been a little better, but this is still pretty damn good.

Isabel: "Congratulations!"

Looks like a solid performance from the "no longer junior team"!
Keep up the good work - I´ll see most of you in Switzerland I guess...

Peter - thanks for the update.

Slicing things a little differently, it looks like Peter & Sharon actually took 1st among the M68/F68+ competitors! Two more years and you'll be young again ;)

Well done all! Good luck in the long!

Canada had a great day in the sprint too!

Mary-Lou Hogg - W55 - EOOC - 62 (B final)
Robyn Rennie - W55 - GVOC - 38 (A final)
Ilona Dobos - W65 - Stars - 61 (A final)
Sevastian Irimie - M50 - Stars - 29 (C final)
Bruce Rennie - M60 - GVOC - 24 (B final)
Alex Kerr - M75 - GVOC - 7 (A final)
Peter Dobos - M75 - Starts - 4 (B final)
Don Scott - M80 - EOOC - 4 (B final)

Go Canada Go!

Just for the numbers folks, here are the entries in each class. M65 is the biggest -- combination of available time, disposable income, and still being ambulatory?



In all classes you get quite a wide range of abilities, ranging from the very serious and still very good to the not so good but still devotees of the sport. And excuses about this or that ailment are ignored. Everyone here has something wrong with them -- they can't see like they used to, or run like they used to, or think like they used to. It just comes with the territory.

And for today at least, not many pajamas to be seen among the pajama crowd. Pretty much everyone was in running shorts and short-sleeve shirts. And a lot of old folks looking very fit.

I'm most impressed by 85 in M80!

All of you youngsters - good races!

Just a little more about some others who did well today. First is Vadim, who screwed up yesterday just enough to miss the A final. Today was much better, he finished first in the B final easily. Next time....

And Joe somehow mispunched in the qualifying -- there were controls all over the place, sometimes very close together. Today he crushed the field in the C final. Again, next time....

Both would have been right up there in the A finals. A shame they didn't have the chance.

And then there was Sandy, claiming not to like sprints and hoping not to come in last, she discovered when they are done in the cities that they are quite a different animal. She made the B final easily -- could have made the A final if she'd had any idea she could, just needed to run a little more. And then today another good run, and more running this time, 17th in the B final and thinking, hmmm, maybe she should do some sprint training, these things are fun.

Also, I expect the map will be up on RouteGadget before too long. In the meantime, here is a copy of it with the M65A course.

Wow, go team USA! I can only hope that someday I'll be as good at this sport as you are! wooo!

Great runs! Go USA!

Great runs, great reporting. Eager to see some good results posted by the Boston crowd and the CSU crowd. Go Jeff, Judy, Peter, and Gail!

Between Peter's reporting on AP and Angelica's photos on FB, I'm getting a very colorful picture of the event. It looks like the sprint went through charming city streets, it would be tempting to stop for a latte. . . For those of you who did well in the past two days, congratulations! And for the rest who had fun anyway, I hope you're enjoying every minute. Best wishes for your other races.

M65 is the biggest

If I recall correctly, M55 was the biggest in Minnesota, so I wouldn't bet against M75 being the biggest in 2027.

Thanks for the updates, PG! Well done in the sprint, everyone, and good luck in the long!!

Some preliminary info from the first of two days of qualifying for the Long. The rules are that you add your times for the two qualifying days and the best X make the A final, the next X in the B final, and so on, where X is 40 if there are two heats, 27 if three, 20 if 4, 16 if 5, 14 if 6.

Excellents runs today by Joe and Pavlina Brautigam. Both should be in the top handful in their heats. Linda Kohn looks in good shape. Sandy Fillebrown was 19th (20 make the A final in her class). I think Greg Balter and Vadim had decent runs. Sharon and I both had screw ups and will need better runs tomorrow. Not sure about others.

Terrain was "interesting." Lots of rocks in places, none in others. Very thick in places, wide open in others. No contour detail at all. But, just like at home, if you knew where you were and knew where you were going, it wasn't hard at all.... :-)

Greg was #14 and I #16 in our heats.

Results from today are here.

Those with good chances of making the A final (with number in heat that make the final) --

Pavlina Brautigam, W50-1, 3rd (27)
Joe Brautigam, M50-2, 7th (20)
Linda Kohn, W60-3, 8th (20)
Sergey Velichko, M50-4, 14th (20)
Greg Balter, M45-1, 14th (27)
Peter Gagarin, M65-5, 14th (14)
Vadim Masalkov, M40-2, 16th (27)
Sandy Fillebrown, W55-2, 19th (20)
Angelica Riley, W40-1, 20th (23)
Sharon Crawford, W65-3, 26th (27)

Second qualifying race is tomorrow.

Here is the map with my course (smaller version, larger version).

What are the black lines in the middle of the light green ? Are these indistinct paths ? Stone walls ? I can't quite make them out.

the terrain had 3 distinct landscape zones: around start - finish area, southern part of the map - was fairly flat with moderate network of logging rides, trails and some roads, lots of mapped vegetation changes and some point features (small rocks charcoal platforms), this area did not present much of navigational challenge, unless you are careless or super tired. the most difficult part of the map was North-Western 2 sq. km, all green, very much broken ground with stone formations from 50 cm to 30 m high. one had to avoid the woods at all cost in that area, using dense network of roads, open rides, logging rides and roads. in the woods people were wandering in all directions, quite confused and asking for help. running through this forest was very physical, and drained a lot of energy, controls were well hidden from view and not easy to collect, even if you are in the middle of the circle, use of the clue was a must; luck was a big part of it - if someone found a control in front of you, and thus given away the location of the prism.
The longer courses (M35-40) went into very steep North-Eastern part of the map, with fairly nice woods, no rocky ground, some cliffs and large rock formation on the slopes, broken down by large reentrants. that area did not present much of the navigational challenge, but offered plenty of physical one.
@levitin: those are logging rides, most of them are quite runable, some had spruce branches covering the ground.

Peter and Sharon both shook off yesterday's result and finished 4th in their respective heats today to move easily into the A Final.

Pavlina once again finished in the top three, and Sergey won his heat today.

Sandy was oh so close to making the A Final, missing out by one place and just under a minute.

(Number in () is the number in heat that make the final.)

Pavlina Brautigam, W50-1, 3rd Day 1, 2nd Day 2, Qualified A Final in 2nd (27)
Joe Brautigam, M50-2, 7th Day 1, 5th Day 2, Qualified A Final in 4th (20)
Linda Kohn, W60-3, 8th Day 1, 14th Day 2, Qualified A Final in 9th (20)
Sergey Velichko, M50-4, 14th Day 1, 1st Day 2, Qualified A Final in 10th (20)
Greg Balter, M45-1, 14th Day 1, 14th Day 2, Qualified A Final in 15th (27)
Peter Gagarin, M65-5, 14th Day 1, 4th Day 2, Qualified A Final in 7th (14)
Vadim Masalkov, M40-2, 16th Day 1, 7th Day 2, Qualified A Final in 13th (27)
Sandy Fillebrown, W55-2, 19th Day 1, 26th Day 2, Qualified B Final in 21st by less than a minute (20)
Angelica Riley, W40-1, 20th Day 1, 10th Day 2, Qualified A Final in 15th (23)
Sharon Crawford, W65-3, 26th Day 1, 4th Day 2, Qualified A Final in 11th (27)

Sweet, congrats all, way to come back Peter + Sharon and nice win Sergey! Solid two day results for Pavlina- good luck to all in the final!

Well done and good luck to all in the finals.

Thanks for posting the results, Valerie! Seems like the live results were working today. We were checking them in the arena with Sandy's iPhone, since they were updated faster than the results being posted on the big boards.

Lots of good runs by our USA crew, with Sergey first in his heat and Pavlina second in hers certainly the stars. So 9 in the A finals, plus there were 8 doing so in the Sprint, from 10 different individuals, pretty good. And so close for Sandy, 21st in her heat and the best 20 make it....

For the finals the results of the qualifying are used only to determine the start order, the best go last. The times don't count. The finals are just a one-day race.

Day off tomorrow and then the finals on Saturday.

I'll post the map shortly....

Awesome results! Good luck in the finals, everyone!

Here's today's map, and a larger version (with an H65 course, but a different heat than the one I ran).

Very fast terrain, except it's been a wet spring/summer and places the vegetation was higher than normal. Lots of depressions, I assume they are bomb craters from 70 years ago. No rocks at all. I think Saturday is supposed to be more like the yesterday, lots of rocks in places, and hillier.

OK, whatever time is it back home, it's not quite 7 pm here in Bad Harzburg, which means it's party time, the whole USA gang here, hosts are Charlie and Rhonda and Dennis and Louise.

The lines are open, send questions for any of the gang and we'll get the answers.

Meanwhile, we are all bemoaning poor Ross, elbow broken again. Joe is willing to take his place. And from our perspective, Ross's injury will not affect his long-term potential on the USA Masters Team.

Question for Joe from the crowd here -- how did you manage to make it around two days of long when you couldn't finish a sprint?

Greg is answering for Joe -- you don't have to check the codes, that's for the weaklings, just deliver your body to the center of the circle.

Question for Sergey -- first time you have won a heat at the WMOC?

Yes, first time. Was second in a heat in Switzerland, 3rd in the other, then 18th in the final. Blew the final, says Greg. Keep our fingers crossed for this time.

Question for Vadim -- are you the best looking guy here?

Vadim says, "Definitely."

Greg says, "Second best." "Behind Sergey," he adds.

Question for Pavlina (from Joe) -- How do you manage to run so well on so little training?

Answer supplied by Greg (who seems to have answers for everything) -- When you're good, you're good.

Reminder, others can ask questions, we'll get the answers.

Question for Sharon -- How could you do so badly yesterday, you used to be so good?

Answer from Sharon -- I've gotten old, fat, and slow.

Follow-up question -- that still doesn't explain how bad you did.

Sharon is muttering something about witches. It's appears she's really lost it.

Question for Jeff -- see any cool cars today?

Answer from Jeff -- I did, a Ligier (whatever the hell that is).

Note that we were not stupid enough to ask Jeff a question about his orienteering.

Question for Angelica -- how many minutes of mistakes are you going to make on Saturday?

Answer from Angelica -- 4 minutes.

Question from Boris: what do you think is the hardest class to win at WMOC?

Was gibt's zum Abendessen?

Another question from Boris: which of you are coming to cheer for us in Switzerland?

Question from Joe, what if you get to the finish and have only made 2 minutes?

She claims she'll sit and wait for two minutes!

(Is she nuts? Maybe, but not yet in Sharon's league?)

Question for Joe, Vadim, and maybe Sandy: do you get anything for winning a B or C final?

For Boris -- Joe says M50, Greg says M45, Sharon says M65 (I agree with that!). Another vote for M65.

Going to WOC -- Linda, Rick, Jeff, Judy, Sharon, Sergey, Masha.

Winning a B/C/D/E/F final -- no awards, maybe a little satisfaction. Same as at World Cup?

Sausages, cheeses, vegetable salad, potato salad, other veggies, tomatoes, several desserts, wine, beer, champagne.

No Gu.

We're breaking for food, back later, send in the questions...

Question from Ross: Are any of the people in your class this week people you've raced with in past years? If so, which have you known the longest?

Answer from Sharon -- Ross, you weren't even born when I first raced some of these people (like at various WOCs in the 70s).

Comment from PG -- when asked for specific names, Sharon just started babbling....

Sharon says -- Hey, I gave you names, you just couldn't spell them.

(Point well taken!)

Also, thanks for saving me a spot on the team. And try to let Joe down easy, he would never be able to fool the organizers into taking my place, he's far too handsome.

Big smile on Joe's face!

By the way, just a reminder that Sharon, sitting next to me here, was a member of the women's USA team that finished 10th in the relay at WOC in 1979 in Finland, best ever I believe by a USA team at WOC. Rest of the team was Betty (Andersen) Falxa and Beth Skelton.

I thought PG was the most handsome guy there, and all the ladies equally, and amply, pulchritudinous?

You guys are doing great! Looking forward to the final on Saturday.

Looks as if it was more of a flat out run on Day 2. What was the significance of that UNESCO World Heritage logo on the map? Was PG declared a heritage figure?

Here is the USA team and supporters at the party tonight (click on photo for a larger version) --

What a great picture! Thanks, Peter.

Thanks! Looking sharp, everyone!

Wow! What an awesome crew. Best wishes to all from hot, humid CT.

Wonderful picture. Watch out for the British spy.

British spy

Scottish. And there were two of them. Doug's friend Robin is next to him.

Results from the WMOC Long Final are beginning to come through here.

Live result links are partially broken, but I did see that it looks like Vadim had a great race - 2nd of the first 40 finishers in M40A - caveat that with 40 more fast qualifiers to finish, that will likely drop, but it's looking solid enough ahead of the rest of the A-finalists that he may hold on to a top 15-20 spot?

With only a couple left to finish, Charlie stands in first place in the M65D final of 84 competitors. Dennis is way up the list in 16th place in M65C. Excellent runs guys! Nice to see "USA" on top of any list over there.

Looks like 15th for Vadim, 25th for Sergey, and 4th for Pavlina, 14th for Peter, 6th for Sharon. At the moment, It seems to work to click two categories below the one you're interested in (I expect they will fix that before too long).

63rd for Linda, 14th for Greg, 25th for Angelica, 7th (B) for Sandy. I don't see Joe.

Joe: 28th in M50A final.

Back from the finals....

Much better terrain today, lots of variety, also better running weather, less humidity. Map coming....

Pavlina was again the star, again 4th place, frustrating. And not much behind. Talked to her a little, sounded like there were one or two controls where she could have been quicker, might have been enough. But she is still a star. Most people don't realize how good, and how consistently good, she is.

Sharon, 8th again, seemed happy enough, hard to judge for sure. She's done a lot better in the past -- several gold medals in case you didn't know -- but top 10 is still top 10.

I was 14th. Beginner's mistake on the first control, lost a minute at least, plus one other miss, maybe 45 seconds. Not sure in a couple of places if I took the best routes. Top 10 was there for the taking, just didn't do it, but on the other hand quite proud for just forgetting about both mistakes, especially the idiotic first one, and never quitting, and proud for having busted my tail up the killer hill at the end and into the finish. Salvaged a place that I feel good about.

Joe, 28th, was pretty happy, wasn't sure about a couple of around routes he took, but felt like he'd one a lot of good orienteering and was already talking about next time. Ditto for Vadim, 24th. Angelica, 25th, said she hoped for no more than 4 minutes of mistakes, figured she made 5. Didn't talk Greg, 33rd, and Sergey, 39th, and Linda, 65th, about their runs.

In the other finals, Jeff was 4th in 60B, Sandy 7th in 55B, Dennis 16 in 65C, Charlie 1st in 65D, Gail 39th in 60B, Judy 64th in 60B, Rick 17th in 65F.

Overall, very good results. And a wonderful feeling, even though we haven't been an official "Team," that we are still a team. Lots of mutual support. And the very great enjoyment of realizing that in our pajama years, we can compete with the best in the world.

And unless you've been over here a bunch, you may not realize how good the standard is. As I was saying to Dennis after today's run, the competition has been orienteering for 55 years. They've been on national teams over here, many have run in World Champions, some have medaled. Given all that, it is really cool to see a bunch of USA's high up in the results, including 5 top-tens for the two events.

That's it for WMOC. Next is the juniors at JWOC starting tomorrow, then the seniors at WOC in a week. Good luck to all of them.

Today's map from the long final with the M65A course, or a large version.

Way to go Team USA masters-nice results!

I will echo what Peter said about being a team - lots of support from everyone. And a special thanks to Linda Kohn for hauling the Team USA banner around - it was great to see it flying and know where to find friendly faces.

Great showing and reporting! Makes me wish I'd been there.

Yup, so proud of the USA team and how they represented at the WMOC. Set a fine example for the younger set, for sure. :)

Great job everyone! Thanks for the reporting, enthuiasm, and inspiration.

That looks like German terrain, for sure!

This sounds like it was an excellent time. I'll have to make en effort to qualify for the Masters Team in future years.

Best try to qualify soon. Who knows what standards might be put in place in the future. Right now seems like we'll take anyone. I mean, look at the shady cast of characters this time.... :-)

Thanks for the reports. See you all at Delaware Water Gap, if not Alberta. It looks as if the Canadian masters will have quite a challenge to keep up with the USA's grizzled vets.
It would also be great to see y'all at the Florida Championships and the Bubba Goat Dec 8-9 at Lake Louisa State Park in Florida.

I've been doing some good training lately toward the main qualifying criterion, which I think involves having enough cash on hand for a plane ticket. :-) Turin next year, and Brazil in 2014, right?

The other qualifying criteria is enough time off (paid vacation or retirent). That's where I'm most likely to fail.

Yes, it really did feel like we were a team, with the US flag, US jerseys, and so many top US orienteers. Here are a few of us just before I headed to the start for the Long Final.