Discussion: WOC 2005

This has become almost a tradition that I write a little blurb before heading off to a big competition, so here it goes...

As most of you know, the US WOC team is heading off to Japan this week. We are arriving through out the week, and will take part in a training camp to prepare us for WOC. WOC starts on Sunday 7, July. You can go to the official website here

July 7th. Middle distance qualifier
July 8th Long distance qualifier
July 10th Sprint qualifier and Sprint final
July 11th Middle final
July 12th Long final
July 14th Relay

Our team goals are to win over Canadian team both overall and
in the relays, and to qualify one person for at least one A final!

I hope we can fulfill these goals GO team!

Thanks for all the support the US orienteering community, and the attackpoint community has given us!

Crap, it was in July???? What the heck am i doing in Japan now?! :) :)

snac-watching, obviously. Go USA!

I am sure our goals include to beat your team too ;)

What's with the background image in the top left corner of the WOC website entry banner where it looks like some people are only wearing a giant Japanese flag?

If you search for "Japanese Team Sprint Selection Races" on the English page, you'll also find links to maps from the Japanese qualifiers.

Have a great time - be one with the maps, be one with the hills (maybe don't be one with the green though).
Run fast, stay calm, and all those other things you already know to do!
I think there are a lot of teams, in addition to Canada, that you should be trying to beat ... and maybe even more than one person in an A final ...
Have great runs!

On second thought ... saying beat the Canadians kinda feels like saying 'beat your teammates' ... so Go Canada! as well as Go USA!

In Norway we have a saying:

1) The most important thing is not to win, but to participate.

However, there is a variant:

1b) The most important thing is not to win, but to beat the Swedes.

Best of luck to all of you! Run smart and kick some Euro butt!

Yeah, like Mikkel says, beat the Swedes! And while you're at it, beat the Norwegians, too! And the best of skill to you!

Here is a page with some simulation work Tero has been using (maybe some can figure out how to make use of it...), in addition to going to bed at 5:30 pm and getting up at 2 am for the past few days, in preparation of WOC.

Best of luck to all!!!!

And here is an "english" blog from WOC.

Interesting .. they say the Event Center is in a stream :).

Did someone ask for a supporter suit? I have a few leftovers if interested. The "Extreme" is extremely non-pajama non-caped. Even Vlad bought one.

Supporter suit has a different meaning this year as it is identical to the real thing. It just costs more.

Mikkel, in Sweden we have the same saying as in Norway, but the other way around of course. Go Sweden! :)

Several members of the Swedish national team have set up personal blogs during their stay in Japan. I guess most of you don't understand Swedish but there are some pics to look at as well... :)

http://rum9.blogg.se/
http://www.matstroeng.nu/vm2005
http://vm.blogg.se/
http://www.emmaengstrand.com/

I also want to wish you all wonderful runs! Have faith in yourselves, be mentally tough, run well, and have a fabulous time racing!

I look forward to cheering for you from afar and checking results at computers in small town libraries as I drive back from Colorado to Maine:)

After a few days of training, the U.S. and Canadian teams have observed that the local fauna include some giant insects, including spiders and dragonflies. The organizers have totally reassured the more squeamish runners by saying that, although the sprint venue is apparently a mecca for huge spiders, they are not poisonous, and there have been no "incidents". I'm not sure what an incident is.

Run with your mouth closed and you'll be fine, right?

I guess we will squash them all :)

Good luck Team! I'll be updating the US Team website as WOC progresses. Click through "US Teams" from www.us.orienteering.org. Or go direct to http://us-o-team.us.orienteering.org/US-O-Team.

Has any one found out if there will be live web coverage of WOC? If so, for what events and what is the URL. A quick scan of the site didn't show any live web stuff.

WOC 2005 online

Middle qual has started but I can't get in the online coverage. Anybody else having this problem?

I'm getting server error as well. Grrr.

Perserverance pays off. I just got in after many clicks. Right now they are showing one finisher in the Women's A qualifier. They don't have any split times, just finishes.

it just started working for me too.

it looks like boris has the fastest time of the north american men so far. go boris!

Sandy Hott-Johanson had a great run. Definitely an A-final finish!

Top 20 from each heat qualify right? That means that all three US women qualified for the A-Final!

No, only top 15 qualify. Assuming the results stand as they are, the qualifying North Americans are Sandy H-J and Erin Olafsen. Samantha just missed it! A great result for her first time at WOC.

It's just 15. Erin (15th) and Sandy (3rd) made it from the same heat. Congratulations!!! Everyone else from North America is in the B, which exists this year. Sam just missed, one spot and about 80 seconds.

Go Erin !!

Does anybody know what the cruising speed index (or something like that) in the split times is?

Some good results today! Sandy's run is reminisent of Pam James' awesome placing in her heat in Scotland (2nd?). Pam ended up 20th. Top female North American placing in a WOC is 18th (Denise Demonte) - I'm betting that will change this year don't ya think!!! Good luck to sandy and erin in the middle final. Long distance qual is next!!

Is the BWI (bmay WOC index) back for 2005?

Awesome guys! We're all watching the show from Colorado this weekend. Keep it up.

After lurking for years I have finally posted something. Yay me!

There is a video on the Swedish Orienteering site. It is mostly a post race interview in Swedish with Jenny Johansson and Kalle Dalin but there are some shots of the terrain and the general atmosphere.
Video

If the link doesn't work you can find the video at www.orientering.se

cruising speed index looks like a relative approximation of the runner's mistake-free running pace, for example, boris is running 23% slower than nordberg without mistakes. mistake ratio is the percent of the finish time that the software thinks could have been due to mistakes (variation in speed compared with the fastest), and it uses that to suggest ideal finish time without mistakes.

my guess is that the mistake ratio is on the high side of actual, but by looking at the two numbers, you can get a good idea how people are running, fast/slow clean/sloppy.

Great Job! Go Erin!!!

They obviously have home-terrain advantage, but the Japanese Team really did a nice job in the Middle Qualifiers. Also, the French Team is really riding Tero's coat tails. 4 men and 2 women qualified.

Atropos, thanks for the video link!

Way to go Erin and Sandy!

Results from the long qualifying are in, and no North Americans made the A final, though the women came very close. 16th for both Sam and Sandra, 17th for Louise, with Sam just missing by 17 seconds, her second straight 16th place. Heartbreaking to come so close, but it's a lot better to miss by a little than a lot. I hope they feel positive about it, because they have run well against the best in the world.

Check out the fine photos.

Nice run ladies!!!

And how about that swisscheese?

If anyone knows Annabel Fernandez, she was 2 seconds behind Erin in the middle. She says that she misread a control description right towards the end and stood there wondering where the control was. Good for Erin, but too bad for Annabel.

She more than made up for it in the long qualifier, finishing 10th in her heat!

Some nice photos from the middle qualifier:


http://project.spjelkavik.net/foto/2005/woc2005mq/...

Here is another video on the Swedish O website. This one features more forest shots, Emma Engstrand, Emil Wingstedt and Holger Hott Johansen.

Swedish Video2

Wow, lots of photos of the Canucks - Sandy, Will and Doctor Neeck! Looks like it was awful hot out there.

They posted a lot more pictures on the official WOC site.

http://woc2005.sub.jp/middle-q/index.html

Here are some direct links to the NA folks I recognized among the middle qual photos:

Pamela? and a couple other canucks in staging area
Dan and Wil start
Wil climbing
Pippa climbing
Pavi running
Pavi drawing, Sam in background
Val Duca running
Sandy Running
Sandy finishing
Erin running
Erin finishing
Mike finishing, edging out Billy Idol
Sergey running
Americans and Canucks chowing down (Pamela, MCat, Sandy, JonT, Dan, Eric?, Erin, Sam, others?)

Sorry if I missed anyone. Great to see all of you over there!
Also, Brian is posting some of these with news on the US team website.

Here is a Video posted in Mats Troeng's Blog of him finishing the middle qualification. It is pretty short.

Report from the field:

The sprint model event, adjacent to the sprint competition terrain, was today. It seemed like most or all teams were there, including us North Americans. The terrain was quite green and also quite detailed in some places--an odd choice for the sprint and hard to read at sprint speed, in my opinion. Short people will have an advantage in having to duck less.

Hurray for short people! Its all you, Boris! Just think about the Sprint Series bonus points you are gonna win!

Thanks for the videos! In the one with Holger, you can see that he carried extra water with him on the course.

Keep an eye out for familiar names in the public races at WOC. I saw Tom Hollowell, Dean Sturtevant, Scott Drumm, Brit Conrad (Germany), Adrian Zissos, Tom's son William and a few other familiar faces. Also the US and CAN team members are running in some of them and doing quite well (MCat, Charlotte).

There's a fellow named "Taro Torrance" of the USA at the top of the Event 1 M21 list. I wonder if he's related to the Jon Torrance of Canada? Seems pretty good whoever he is. We should make sure he runs at the US Trials next year :)

The Japanese have some pretty cool club names too, like "Zombies" and "Mugi-Chocolate Club" Mmmm, club of chocolate...

Way to go Sandy and Erin! Great job and keep it going for the Final. Great job Sam, coming so close! Thanks for the photos and links.

Here is the latest Video

from the Swedish O site. This one is about the sprint and features Emil, Emma, Anne-margrethe, and Sime.

They have finally posted some pictures from the long qualification.

http://woc2005.sub.jp/long-q/index.html

Nice. Here are some direct links to the NA folks I recognized among the long qual photos:

Super Sam(e) running
Sergey (Eric?), Brent, Adrian and Charlotte at call-up
Holger, pre-Sting (Is there a new nickname in his future? :)
Erin at spectator and maple leaf coach shorts
Is that Pamela's West Point water bottle in the coaching station?
Pamela in the chute
Fuzzy Brent in the background
El Duqe' at spectator
Dan in background at spectator
Cute shot of Sandra drawing
Swisscheese drawing with impunity

Sorry if I missed anyone. Looks like another scorcher.

They have finally posted some pictures from the sprint qualification.

http://woc2005.sub.jp/sprint-q/index.html

Here are some direct links to the NA folks I recognized among the sprint qual photos:

Pamela punching
Jon Torrance starting

I didn't see any "banditos yanquis" in today's pics I'm afraid.

Here is the Long Distance Final Video
It includes an interview in English with Swisscheese and Hanny Alston as well as various swedes and simone.