Note
Today's a rest day from running (not a bad one to have - it was 30 degrees at 6 a.m., and riding in a howling crosswind wasn't a lot of fun), so it's a good opportunity for my end-of-year awards (drum-roll):
The Who Says Orienteering Isn't A Contact Sport Award: Eric Bone and Mike Smith for their efforts in the WOC sprint qualifier. They came back bleeding in similar spots and at the finish we thought they might have run into the same obstacle. As it turned out they'd run into each other.
Although as far as I know there were no actual collisions, an honourable mention goes to whoever thought it was a good idea to run the Trail-O WOC in conjunction with the MTBO WOC and have racing bikes and wheelchairs sharing the same tracks at the same time.
Mistake of the Year: David Andersson for running the wrong way around the loop after the spectator control at the WOC middle distance final. Honourable mention to Minna Kauppi for almost managing to blow a five-minute lead in the last section of the WOC relay, and to Valentin Novikov for his mistake while leading towards the end of the middle distance final.
Serial DNF Award: There were a couple of good Australian bids for this one (Troy de Haas for getting disqualified twice in one day at the WOC sprint, and the MTBO relay team for getting all three of their members disqualified), but the winner is one Daniel Antonio Pereira of Hong Kong, who managed to get himself disqualified in all four events at JWOC. The only event he actually finished was the middle qualifier (where he came last).
Most Useless Prize: The winners at the pre-WMOC sprint race in Wiener Neustadt got to take home a copy of a 1998 Austrian sport yearbook (in German). I did notice that said yearbook did contain a disproportionate number of pictures of a certain Russian female tennis player who was a losing quarter-finalist in that year's Austrian Open.
The Basil Fawlty Don't Mention The War Award: To the Finnish and Russian MTBO teams for their protests and counter-protests over Ruslan Gritsan's route choice on the spectator leg at the WOC long distance.
The Know Your Target Audience Award: To the Austrian armed forces for sponsoring WMOC, an event where 95% of the participants weren't Austrian and 100% were at least 34 1/2 years old - not exactly a recruitment opportunity.
(An honourable mention to the caterers at the same event, for having as one of the items for sale - cigarettes).
Best Line of the Year on AP: Kieran Sullivan for saying after a hot run (and aren't all runs hot in Brisbane between, well, August and May?) that he was sweating "like a paedophile at a Wiggles concert".
Worst Major Event Song: A dead-heat between all known entries.
Most Unfortunate Off-Field Injury: Rob Walter's bike crash on Rottnest Island which put him out of the Australian Championships.
Most Political Use of an Event: To the Afghan would-be asylum seekers, housed next to the Norwegian O-festival venue, who decided the event would be a good opportunity to display to the world their non-enthusiasm about their impending deportation. They got a bit of media coverage but got sent back anyway.
Any other suggestions welcome...