Discussion: US Team at the World Champs

Team USA is in place in Miskolc, Hungary, happily doing our final WOC preparations and training sessions.

Luckily for you, the avid fan, there are multiple ways to keep up with the Team!

You can follow general Team happenings on our blog, plus lots more pictures and comments on our Facebook fan page.

We love hearing from you, so keep up the questions and comments!

Congrats to Sandra for lucky 13!

Here are pictures of many runners: http://www.flickr.com/photos/18115983@N00/sets/721...

Congrats to Sandra! Also to Eric Bone. He didn't make the final, but he was less than 22% behind the winner, the top US result by this measure. That men's field is tough.

Way to go Eric! Definitely a tough field of runners!! Well done to everyone from North America that ran today - sounds like the conditions were warm and hilly and technical (? - different runners had different reactions, at least those interviewed).
Good luck to everyone in the Long Quals tomorrow!

Way to go USA! Congrats to Sandra and Eric for really great races. Wyatt, DVOA land has their eyes on you keep up the good work. Good luck tomorrow to all of you!

Great job USA, keep it roll'n!!

Great job by Sam to qualify today, and excellent race by Ross, 22nd place in a very tough heat!

Hurrah Sam! Great job! Well done Ross! Congrats to all!
Keep up the good work! More cheering to come :-)

Yay Sam!! Another day of great racing. Congratulations everyone.

Great job, you guys! Congrats, Sam! What a fantastic run!

Woohoooooo......... great races guys! Congrats!!!

We're proud of all of you...this gets more and more exciting1!

Great reaces all of you. Congrats to Sam on qualifying today! Great race Ross! Keep it going! GO USA!

Some additional long qual photos. Includes some shots of Neil getting his hair cut, Cristina in the quarantine zone before her first WOC start, and some panoramas in the terrain on the last page. Small and Medium res posted.

Many of these photos are already on Clem's flickr page, but some of the last ones of runners are new ones from my camera. Clem is having some battery problems, and I'm having a sticky shutter button problem making focusing difficult. We are making due. Went out looking for batteries today in town, but no joy.

And if you've ever wondered why the Finns are so fast in the forest, perhaps its because they can levitate. (Tero Fohr in the long qual start chute)

Not a single Scandinavian in the top 5 of the Men's Middle Final. Wow!

Good luck tomorrow in the sprint qualifiers!! Go Christina, Viktoria, Sam, Ross, Wyatt and Clem! Wahooo!!!!

Go sprinters, go!! Hear the cheers!! We're all watching and rooting for you!!

Pics from today's middle final. Small and Medium res again. Beautiful weather for photos today, and good lighting in the chute. Shots of Sandra on page 2.

Clem's pics from the middle final are also posted.

Congrats Sam! Yay!

Something strange with Samantha's Sprint Qualification heat. Nine people are marked as "MP". Huh? No mispunches in the other heats. Only a few more minutes for complaints/protests.

Regardless, Samantha's time is excellent. Good luck to Sam & Patrick (CAN) in the finals.

I think they were all confused with the trees at the end. I believe the other heats went to the spectator control, into the woods, and then back to the buildings. My heat stayed in the open area instead of going back to the buildings and went to 2 trees in a row. Maybe they went to the wrong tree, or skipped one.

Worldofo reported The nine DSQ's in women A #woc2009 were due to skipping the middle control in a line of three controls. Difficult to see on the map.

Looking at the splits from that heat it doesn't seem as though there was one single problem area, just a lot of people not checking codes/getting confused, especially in the last segment of the course.

Here are some quick pics of Sam in the Sprint Quali. We're on our way to the final now. Sam is standing in the halways saying she's nervous :)

IMG_0305.JPG
IMG_0544.JPG
IMG_0546.JPG
IMG_0564.JPG

These are large (and un-rotated). Will load the rest tonight, including some shots from the final. The Hungaria Cup sprint in downtown Miskolc today was also tremendously fun. On our way...

Don't know if it means anything at all, but in her qualifying heat by my count there were 11 legs that took her less than one minute and Samantha had a top five split on 7 out of 11 of them (including 3 fastest splits, 2 second fastest, 1 third fastest, and 1 fifth).

Go Sam!!! Great race and lots of TV time!

Nice job sam! looks like it was a tight race!

We got the text live, gathered on the back porch with grandpa.
Have a good run in the relay.

OK, my pics from the Sprint Qual are posted. Good light and a good location made for nice shooting. 255 pics, Small and Medium-res are posted.

Awesome pics Eddie! Looks like PGC lost his clue sheet in the process.

Thanks! Sprint Final pics now posted. Clem's are also posted with his other photo sets here. The lighting and locations were much harder this evening, so we took more "behind the scenes" photos in the team area. A good vibe there. The sprint final start chute went right through the team area, so it was less crowded and we could take pics right at the start chute. Clem got some great ones of Sam starting. Mine are, "too late."

Yea! Go Sam!

Go Ross!!!!! Awesome start!!!!!!!!

Ahead of Sweden, Finland, Czech so far

TV2: Ross right with the pack!

Any Americans watching???

if you count watching the live texts scroll by... then yes

I'm watching text results, the only video link I saw required an access code of some sort.

Ross: 22nd, +3:28. Fantastic!!!!

I am watching live video. It works fine.

Aye. Well done, Ross! Speed on, Eric and Eddie!

is there a Finnish or Norwegian tv link to today's relay event?

Go Team USA! Great job Ross!

Go Sam! Great job to the first control!

boris where are you watching? pay for site?

yeah, joe. you want the code?

my gmail account

which is?

brautigam.joe

ok

Great Relay Run guys!! Looks like a good start for Sam! And such a good reflection on the sport of orienteering that the top runners would stop and give up their potential metals in order to help a fellow injured runner.

Here are my pictures from the relay: http://www.flickr.com/photos/18115983@N00/sets/721...

Keep it up guys! Great job!

A few more relay pics. Here's a panorama of the relay arena (same area was used for the middle final):

Spectator control chute is on the far left. Start chute is center left. Finish came up the chute in center right - gradual uphill the whole way, and the team tents are in the distance on the right.