The Relay

WOC is over and all that is left to do is go to the banquet... The final race this afternoon was the team relay. South Africa had a non-eventful race, finishing 33rd out of 36 teams, thanks to a few disqualification from Turkey, France and Denmark. Although RSA was last, this is still an improvement in team position, moving up from 36th last year in Kiev, Ukraine.

Eugene started off well, but shortly afterwards started cramping, loosing time and places to end at the back of the field. Paul took over in the 2nd leg and had a consistent run, finishing about 4 minutes faster than Eugene. Nicholas ran the anchor leg, managing a clean run but not able to make up any places.

So that's it for another WOC. The team is generally pleased with their performances and will undoubtedly post some reports on the group list when they return home.

Finally, the official Team Photo...


Sunset over Olomouc...


So cheers from Olomouc from Team South Africa. WOC 2009 is in Miscolc, Hungary. We'll put up further info later in the year.

...the team.

Middle Distance Results

The South African team performed fairly in some beautiful and intricate terrain at the Middle Distance qualification races yesterday morning. It turned out to be a long day, with the qualification in the morning followed by the finals later that afternoon, with many teams only returning to Olomouc after 9pm.

The South African Results were: (4.7km courses, 120m climb)
- Men's A heat - Garry Morrison 36th - 72:48
- Men's B heat - Eugene Botha 32nd - 42:04
- Men's C heat - Nicholas Mulder 33rd - 36:33

Eugene racing down the finish chute at the end of the Middle Qualification race...


The RSA Boy Band...


Team South Africa watching the Middle Final race unfold later in the day...


The next race for the team is the Relay, which will take place on Sunday morning. The team will be: Eugene Botha running first leg, Paul Wimberley second and Nicholas Mulder anchor.

Long Distance Results

Well, no South African made an A-final. But we didn't promise that anyway!

The South African competitors had fair results. For Garry and Paul, both participating at their first WOC (Garry's first ever overseas race), the results are actually very commendable. The results were:

Men's A heat - Garry Morrison 35th - 1:53:16
Men's B heat - Paul Wimberley 33rd - 1:40:01
Men's C heat - Nicholas Mulder 30th - 1:29:11

All heats were won in 60 or 61 minutes. Garry had a 1 major mistake that cost him at least 10 minutes. Paul spent 5 minutes searching for control #1 whilst Nicholas had a few small mistakes through the course, the biggest about 3 minutes.

Paul's impressions of his course was that it wasn't extremely technical, although still physically tough in places. The speed of the winners was still very fast however... 60 minutes for 11km. Men's heat C was significantly different from the other 2, notably in having a very tough long leg. Below is Nicholas' map with his route in red as well as time loss estimates at various points.


Wednesday is a rest day. In the morning, we'll go and test the model area for the Middle Distance Qualification, which takes place on Thursday morning.

Next up... the Long Distance

Yesterday saw the final of the Sprint Event in the town of Olomouc. Team South Africa were in the crowd watching the race unfold. The weather constantly threatened and we even had a small downpour for about 2 minutes during the men's final. Otherwise the event went off without a hitch, even being broadcast live to 5 countries.

There were quite a few supporters from all corners of Europe cheering on their athletes. Here's a Czech statue about to take exception with the raucous Italians fans...



Monday was taken up with a final training run on the Model map for Tuesday's Long Qualification. Althogh it was momentarily dry, it had rained overnight, leaving the forest branches very wet. Paul drew his route on his map afterwards of where he thinks he was...



To cheer him up, we went shopping on the way home. He was told he could only have 1 can of beer today...



Anyway, Nicholas, Garry and Paul will be running the Long Qualie for S.A. tomorrow. Their start times are:

Paul - 09h44
Garry - 10h12
Nicholas - 10h20

They're all good start times, not too early, nor too far back in the field. Each of the 3 heats will be about 10.9km in length, with 20 or 21 controls and 400-410m of climb.

Fast times at Sprint Qualification

The South African team posted good results in the sprint qualification this morning in the town of Prostejov, however some very fast courses and winning times meant they were well down the results board.

Garry managed to finish best of the South Africans in Heat C, with a time of 13.38 over the 2.9km course. The winner, Daniel Hubmann of Switzerland, took 10.58, with the 15th placed runner (last qualification spot) only a further 43 seconds behind! The 108% of the winner time required for qualification was the result of very fast and easy courses.

The Sprint final will be held later this evening in the town of Olomouc, where a more technical course is expected.

Most of the team prior to this morning's sprint...


Today's blackmail photo...


Garry approaching the second last control...


Overall the team are happy with their results. Eugene has had a bit of a cold for the last few days so it disappointed that his lungs didn't hold out on the latter half of the course. Paul is thrilled that he wasn't the slowest male out there today!

On your mark, Get set, SPRINT!

With one day to go before the start of WOC, Team South Africa are raring to go. The start times for the Sprint Qualification on Sunday morning are...

Garry Morrison - 10h35
Eugene Botha - 10h50
Paul Wimberley - 11h01

The guys will be running a 2.8km course around the city of Prostejov, about 25km south of Olomouc, with the winner expected to do about 12 minutes in each of the 3 heats. The top 15 finishers in each heat go through to the final in Olomouc centre on Sunday evening.

As final preparation for the Sprint event, the team ran on the official model map and area on Saturday afternoon.



Even Ian Bratt, the team manager went out for a run.



The weather has been muggy for the last two days, but temperate are expected to be mild, with potential thunderstorms on race day. The team are keen to get going. This will be the first outing at a World Champs for all three South African runners, so both athletes and manager are unsure of what is going to happen! Eugene has divulged his race strategy as '- go like hell'. Paul's race strategy is '- finish'. Garry is still 'mulling it over'.

Update on the Training Camp

Team South Africa have been in the Czech Republic since Saturday, and have now settled down into a nice rhythm of eat, sleep and orienteer.

Arrival and Settling In

After arriving in Prague on Saturday, Nicholas, Eugene and Paul drove the 300-odd km down to Olomouc in their rented Merc. Garry arrived at the Olomouc train station on Sunday, so we now await team manager Ian Bratt's arrival on Friday to complete the team. Accommodation in the Palack University hostels is good, but we've been left to fend for ourselves food-wise for this first week. We've managed to locate a few good restaurants and a shopping mall in the area, armed of course with a handy English-Czech translation guidebook.

Training Maps

The first few days in the Czech Republic resulted in the team pulling some of their hair out due to the lack of training maps. We eventually received these on Tuesday, two full days after we arrived. In the meantime we'd come up with some alternative plans, including competing in the 3rd day (middle distance) of the Moravian Champs on Sunday, and joining the Chinese team for an informal sprint race in a suburb of Olomouc on Tuesday morning. Out of interest, the Chinese team have spent the last 2 months training full-time in the Czech Republic!

Eugene approaching the finish line in the Moravian Champs...



With official training maps in hand, we finally got down to some good training on Tueday and Wednesday. We included various exercises, such as star relays, interval training and control picking. The forests are reasonably runnable, with a mixture of both conifer and broad leaf. There is not much rock apart from the occasional cliff or karst formation. The terrain is occasionally steep, depending on which map you are on. Blueberries plants litter the ground.

Garry spots a bear!...



Sightseeing
We haven't had too many opportunities to go sightseeing. We're banned from the centre of Olomouc (the Sprint Final area) until Sunday, which is one of the more interesting parts of the region. On Monday, we did manage to go see a nearby castle. The natural surroundings of the region, particularly the forrested Moravian Karst and Jesenik mountains are far more interesting. They are heavily wooded and must be beautiful to backpack through.

In the mountains near Jesenik...



Sightseeing in one of the nearby towns...



Coming Soon
We've got a few more days of training before WOC officially begins. The first race in on Sunday, with the Sprint Qualifier on Sunday morning and the final in the afternoon. The team for the Sprint (max. 3 men per country) will be Paul, Eugene and Garry. Will keep you updated before then.

Team South Africa leave for WOC

The National Team leaves tonight to compete at the World Orienteering Champs in Olomouc, Czech Republic. They will spend a week in final training nearby before the Champs take place between 13th and 20th of July.

Sponsors and Fundraising

A big thanks must go to all those who have supported the national team financially. Last weekend the team hosted a very sucessful Fundraising race at Albert's Farm that was well supported by many orienteers. Thank you! Then the team has also been able to attract two sponsors, Geosystems Africa / Leica Geosystems and Optron Geomatics. Thank you from the team as well as the orienteering community in general. Finally, the team is grateful to receive funding from the National Lottery and the South African Orienteering Federation.