Top 10 for South Africa at WOC!

Well... sort of. Only if you count the Beer-O on the Sunday evening just before the final banquet and party!

The second half of WOC for Team South Africa once again continued to have mixed results as Eugene battled to overcome blisters, Cobus battled to overcome the big step up to international competition and as Nicholas battled to overcome a cold from the previous week. Thus a Top-10 at the Beer-O, organised by Team USA, is something to be proud of (we think).

Sprint

Thursday's Sprint race was a tough affair, with qualifications races in the morning, followed by the final for the Top 15 in each heat in the afternoon. Once again, there weren't any real hopes that the South African competitors would make this final, but goals were set against many of our peer nations.

In Heat C, Eugene finished with 2 notable mistakes at #5 and #13 which saw him loose some minutes. Persistent blister problems saw him running in pain most of the way, but he still managed to put in a strong sprint. He got it wrong coming off the bridge however in the finish chute, as he nose dived down the slope into the dust. Determined to further impress the crowd, he recovered quickly and still managed to finish 23rd out of 37 in the sprint finish leg! Overall, he finished 35th in 26:48.

Pic: Eugene nose-dives into the dust in the finish chute of the Sprint Qualification race (photo by Eddie Bergeron).

Pic: Eugene recovers quickly from the spill down the bridge crossing... check the dust! (photo by Eddie Bergeron)

Nicholas put together a good run in the forested terrain. Being in the forests rather than an urban setting meant a more technical race than recent years in the Sprint, with Nicholas using this to full advantage. He finished 31st out of 38 starters in Heat A in 18:34, four minutes behind the heat winner. He was happy with his race, which only had 1 mistake of about 40 seconds when the race entered a compound with 1m high 'uncrossable' fences that required some major detours.

Pic: Nicholas completing the Sprint Qualification, and showing the correct technique for running over a bridge (photo by Eddie Bergeron)

Cobus had a fair run, but was disappointed with finishing 34th out of 38th, with a time of 28:12. He had a big mistake at the 3rd control before settling down into a good rhythm. However, trouble on controls 13 to 17 saw him loose time on the rest of the field.

Pic: Cobus in the run-in at the finish of the Sprint Qualification (photo by Eddie Bergeron)

Relay

There was no day of rest before the Relay, so the team were still a bit tired after their hard runs in the Sprint the day before. Eugene was the worst off, as he could now sport various scrapes and bruises in addition to his blisters. The decision had been made a few days earlier that the running order would be Nicholas-Cobus-Eugene. The goal was to keep South Africa competitive against the peer nations as long as possible.

The first leg went well. Nicholas was dropped by the fast pack immediately after the start. However, he was catching stragglers by the 2nd control, and was in a group of 5 peer nations by the 4th. He had a good run in the end, brining the team home in 32nd (out of 38) at the end of the first leg. This put us just behind Belarus, Serbia and Ireland, but ahead of countries like Turkey, Croatia, New Zealand, Germany, China and Hong Kong.

Pic: Eugene goes to his 'special place' just before his run.

Cobus took over on the 2nd leg and performed well with a constant run all the way around the course. He was overtaken by some countries with much stronger runners but still managed to keep Hong Kong at a far distance. Furthermore, he passed the Serbian and Japanese teams to bring SA home in 35th.

Pic: Cobus hands over to Eugene for the final leg of the relay.

The final leg saw Eugene being forced to take the course slow and steady due to his numerous injuries. The team lost a couple more spots but still managed to finish well ahead of Hong Kong. The team took 36th position, one place higher due to the dramatic injury sustained to Sweden on the last leg.

Pic: Team South Africa comparing notes after the finish.

The Rest of WOC
With not making any finals, Team South Africa had plenty of time to enjoy the rest of WOC. We spectated in all the WOC Finals and off course had ring-side seats to the injury drama in the Men's race in the Relay (is there any other sport that can equal sportsmanship like that?).

We also managed to participate in various races of the Hungaria Cup. The most enjoyable day had to be Day 6, which was held just prior to the Long Final race (map below). This was definitely a first: registration in Hungary, 50m from the Slovak border. Start in Slovakia, control 1-3 in Hungary, controls 3-finish in Slovakia and then download in Hungary! The yellow ride is the old border between the 2 countries. The forest was also absolutely beautiful! 100% white runnable forest with lots of sinkholes all over the place.

Pic: Day 6 of the Hungaria Cup with the Open 3 (longest) course and Nicholas' route.

That just leaves one final race: the WOC Beer-O. The USA team put together a great event for the 40 or so participants that turned up after the Long Final for the unofficial World Champs in Beer-O on the University Campus map. They represented at least 15 or so countries, including USA, Canada, Britain, Ireland, Belgium, North Korea, Portugal, Bulgaria, etc. The rules were simple, drink before and after each of 3 butterfly routes around the campus. They even managed to arrange a special guest (Per - the WOC speaker) to officiate the proceedings. Portugal took the Gold (chocolate) in the Men's and USA in the Women's races as the National Anthems of the countries were played (well, sort of). Nicholas finally pulled off the result he was looking for with a Top 10!

That's it for WOC 2009 (except for the Banquet, where the goings-on are never mentioned anyway). Next year WOC takes place in Trondheim, Norway. Wohoo! If you ever wanted to find out how its possible that marshes can form on the slopes of mountain, what cloud-berries taste like or what it's like to orienteer so close to the arctic circle, you'd better start training!



Final thanks: to Pieter Mulder for managing the Team in Hungary, to the South African National Lottery for the support of Sport in SA, to the organisers for hosting a great WOC and to all the other teams for the great competition.

Pics: Thanks to Eddie Bergeron (Team USA) for the great pics of the team at the Sprint race.

Long Distance Results

South Africa produced less than impressive results at the Long Distance Qualifier at WOC 2009 on Monday.

The second day of competition saw Cobus and Nicholas return to earth with a bump after the good results on the previous day's Middle Qualification. Eugene was unfortunately not able to start due to bad blisters on his feet from the Middle distance.

Cobus was the early starter in the team once again, finishing Heat C as 37th out of 38 in a time of 1:46:32. He found it tough going, with numerous errors around the course. The high speed that his competitors were running at did not do his confidence any good as they breezed past him in the forest.


Flic: Cobus Van Zyl finishing at the Long Distance Qualifier (viewable only on blog)

In Heat B, Nicholas had a disasterous run, missing time on many of the early controls and destroying his confidence. Tiredness as a result of last week's cold also played its part as he finished a disappointing 34th out of 38, in a time of 1:29:47, about 15 minutes down of what he tought would be acceptable.

The terrain was once again fast and easy. A big suprise for many runners was that a big route choice leg was presented immediately after the start as the leg to control 1. There was also some suprising mapping of a whole forest of significant trees on part of the map, thus making the significant trees rather insignificant. Most runners made few mistakes and qualification was tough in all heats (but particularly in Heat A where you needed to finish within 3:22 of the 1 hour winning time to Qualify!). There was however a suprisingly technical penultimate control on all heats that saw some of the big names loose 2 - 3 minutes, probably as a result of higher speed and a loss of concentration so close to the finish.

Pic: Any decent comments or title for this photo?

Monday was also the first day of the Hungaria O' Cup, which saw 2 people running in the colours of the Adventure Racing Club! The first was Cindy Van Zyl who acquitted herself well with a time just over one hour in the W35 category.

Pic: Cindy Van Zyl finishes Day 1 of the Hungaria O' Cup.

The second AR Club vest seemed to have been worn by an imposter with a distinct British accent.


Pic: Dave Peel (technically SYO, U.K.) gives a blow-by-blow account of his race to the South African reporter.

The team now take a couple of urgently needed rest days before the Sprint Qualification on Thursday morning. On Friday the team compete in their last race, the Relay.

Mixed results for Team RSA in Middle Qualie

Team South Africa had mixed results on the first day of competition at WOC, the Middle Distance Qualification, which were held in the forests just south of the village of Bükkszentkereszt on Sunday morning.

Pic: Eugene, Nicholas and Cobus pose for the Official Team S.A. photo.

The highest result came from Nicholas Mulder, 29th on Heat C (36:10), which put him 9:59 behind the winner and 5:00 away from the elusive 15th spot, the final qualification place for the Middle Final on Wednesday. 38 runners competed in each heat. He's described his run as 'mediocre', with about 45 seconds of mistakes. The main problem however has been a lingering cold over the last week which he feels slowed him down by a couple of minutes. He's mostly over it now, so is looking forward to a positive Long Qualification race.

On Heat A, Cobus Van Zyl ran into a 36th place in a very respectable time of 44:40, especially commendable given that this is his first ever international race at the elite level. He seems quite happy, and had a fairly clean run despite being very nervous over the last few days as he realised the magnitude of what he was getting himself into. In true orienteers form, he's already dissected his mistakes and come up with a grand total of 4 to 6 minutes of errors that he should be able to avoid.

Eugene Botha had a disasterous first race in WOC. Within 3 controls he had developed severe blisters on one foot due to sock troubles. These soon became unbearable and he eventually finished Heat B in 37th place, 54:06. He has received treatment on these (and was caught off-guard by the Medic when he quietly applied the Merthiolate). However, there is a strong possibility that Eugene may decide not to start the Long Qualification tomorrow morning. A final decision will be made on the morning.

The courses themselves were enjoyable. They were extremely fast and technically easy, with 100% runnable beech forest and no undergrowth over almost the entire distance. Even the light green forest was actually quite close to 90% runnable. This seems to have caught a few people off guard however as many runners still made the odd silly mistake, upsetting their chances of qualification.

Pic: Nicholas' map (Heat C) with his course (5.1km, 190m climb).

The team is now spending the rest of the day relaxing and recovering in anticipation of a tough, hilly Long Distance Qualification race tomorrow morning on the adjoining area to the west and south. The first start is at 9am, with Cobus off early again at 9:18. Eugene is next at 9:30 with Nicholas following at 9:58.

SA Team ready for WOC '09

The South African team is all ready and prepared for the 2009 World Orienteering Championships, held this year in Miskolc, Hungary. The first race of the Champs is the Middle Qualification which takes place on Sunday 16 August.

For this year's WOC, the SA team is quite small, comprising of 3 male athletes (Eugene Botha, Cobus Van Zyl and Nicholas Mulder) and 1 team manager (Pieter Mulder). Unfortunately we were unable to entice any of the selected SA ladies out to Hungary. Most of the team arrived via Budapest on Wednesday, whilst Eugene took a more leasurely approach and sneaked into camp on Friday afternoon. The drive from Budapest to Miskolc, approximately 2.5 hours to the north-east, was fast and without incident. The last part of the drive gave us a good view of the limestone hills of the Bükk Mountains, on the west side of Miskolc, where the majority of the competitions will take place (Bükk means 'Beech' in Hungarian - as in the tree type, not the seaside). The team has spent the subsequent few days in final training in the forests and acclimatising.

Pic: Cobus biting into a local delicacy after one of the team training sessions

Despite the relatively short time we've had in the country, we've already had a few great experiences. The drives through the Bükk National Park have been inspiring... very fast white forests on tough hilly terrain. After one of out training sessions, we also stopped at a 'fast food' kiosk to sample the local tourist fare. This can only be likened to a sort of deep-fried pizza dough with cheese sprinkled over the top. It took about 30 minutes to receive our 'fast' food, a good indication that the pace of life in these mountains is quite unhurried.

Our accommodation, based in the Univesity of Miskolc's 'Uni-Hotel' has been excellent. The food has also been quite decent, with the expected East European emphasis on hearty meals generally featuring soups, meat, potatoes, goulash, etc. The translations to English leave much to be desired though...

Pic: Lunch time! The English translation of the meal creates some amusement.

Meanwhile, the orienteering has been enjoyable as well... if only there weren't so many nettles all over the place! Most of the forest is white and very fast. The region however is mountainous and karst, meaning we'll be expecting some good climb during the races and encountering lots of sinkholes and pits. On Saturday we had our final preparation, the Model area for the Middle Qualification race. All went well, so now we just await our start signals. Cobus is first off of the South Africans at 10h10, then follows Eugene at 10h46 and Nicholas right behind at 10h50. All very good times, not too early or too late. We're all holding thumbs for Cobus, hoping that he'll overcome the nerves of his first WOC appearance and have a good run. Eugene is competing in his 2nd WOC whilst Nicholas is on number 8, so no need to worry about them.

Pic: Map of the Model area for the Middle Qualification. Nic's GPS course is partly overlaid (until it went bezerk).

Final Wrap for Taiwan

Well, the World Games in Taiwan is over and the South African orienteers are already back home. The remainder of Team S.A. is still in Kaohsiung, with the Rugby-7s boys still S.A.'s big hope for a Gold medal. Go Bokke! Further medal hopes lie with the Waterskiing team.

Pic: Taiwanese artistic design

Back to Orienteering, the WG Relay was won comfortably by the Russians after a nightmarish last leg from Sweden. Finland and Norway took silver and bronze, just edging out Australia into 4th place. Once again the weather was incredibly hot and humid, causing some concern as various runners collapsed over the hand-over line at the end of their legs. Performances seemed to be muted as various runners battled to overcome the strain of competing in these tough conditions in the previous two days. World Games organisers may well consider putting in a rest day between the Middle and Relay races, particularly in countries that will present such tough weather conditions.

The World Games proved to be a special experience for both of the South African competitors. It was also a superb gauge of their current abilities. Tania produced the best performances, far outstripping expectations and putting down two of the best senior performances from any South African female orienteer at International level. Her improved ability was certainly in part due to help from the SA Orienteering Federation, SASCOC and the National Lottery which had given both athletes funding that has allowed them to improve their training. One of the most important aspects to this was various tests that was done at the High Performance Centre in Pretoria, which produced results that allowed Tania to modify her training for better results. The success of this is very evident. Nicholas also managed to produce some decent results, with the better one coming in the middle distance. A big gap still exists however between the South African results and the top / middle of the field. This gap was strongly emphasized in Taiwan, where the reduced overall number of orienteers in the field makes it much more difficult for weaker nations to produce positive results. Both competitors however walk away with a much greater awareness of where they are and where they are going in the sport.

Pic: Nicholas, Tania and Sarah (CAN) waiting at a very artistic bus-stop in Kaohsiung

To the future, the host of the 2013 World Games has just been announced as Columbia. This means that the conditions, maps and terrain will probably be fairly similar to those experienced in Taiwan. i.e. the races will take place in parks and semi-urban settings, with warm and humid conditions once again prevalent. the World Games will thus once again take on a slightly different aspect than those of JWOC or WOC, with a strong focus on fast, sprint type orienteering. With the current crop of S.A. junior orienteers making their way through the ranks, it is probable, and indeed preferable, that these juniors will contest for the slots allocated to Africa at the 2013 World Games. It would be great to see a young team of 2 men and 2 women competing in the Relay event four years from now. The experience gained and lessons learnt by Tania, Nicholas and Ian will go a long way to making that possible.

Pic: Hong Kong city viewed from The Peak (great tram ride up here!)

Finally, the team enjoyed a stop over in Hong Kong on their way back home to South Africa. What an incredible city! It was also a great to compare two totally different East Asian cities. Hong Kong's skyscraper skyline even puts New York to shame!

Pic: The skyline of Hong Kong from the water's edge at the Ferry Terminal

One final note has to go to Taiwan for their love of fireworks. We watched 3 'official' firework displays down at True Love Pier. They took place each night. However, there were also plenty of impromptu fireworks displays on the streets. These normally involved roving 'gangs' of entertainers that would summarily close down various sections of streets and start a firework display without warning, leaving pedestrians and drivers diving for cover. Ian managed to get some great footage of one of these episodes.

Pic: Impromptu fireworks display on the streets of Kaohsiung

That's it for the World Games. The next focus for the SA National Team will be the World Champs in Miskolc, Hungary. The team comprises of Nicholas Mulder, Cobus Van Zyl and Eugene Botha. Unfortunately, no ladies took their places in this year's WOC team. Pieter Mulder is the team manager. Cobus is currently competing at the Swedish O-Ringen, whilst Nicholas will compete in the Swiss 6-Day prior to WOC. The team will then arrive 1 week early for a final training camp in Miskolc before the Champs get under way from 16 - 23 August 2009.

Will keep you updated!

Middle Distance

The middle distance final took place today at Chengcing Lake in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The good news was that the Typhoon heading towards Taiwan a couple of days ago decided to swing past the island to the south. The even better news it that it still generated a lot of wind and some light rain overnight that have helped cool the city down to managable levels. It's still very warm and humid however.

Chengcing Lake proved to be a great place to orienteer. Most of the area was parkland, with some green and some undergrowth. However, almost all of this was still passable and many athletes preferred to stay in shorts and short socks for the race. Apart from the lake, we ended up running around quite a few monuments, canals and even a pagoda.

Pic: One of the buildings on the Chengcing Lake map

Pic: One of the views at Chengcing Lake

Results wise, there were some good results from the South Africans today. Tania Wimberley repeated her performance in the Sprint Race by finishing once again in 31st position with a time of 38:30. This put her 11 minutes behind the winning time of Australian Hanny Allston who is cleary back with a bang after beating second-place Minna Kauppi (FIN) comprehensively by 1:17.

Pic: Tania Wimberley starts her middle distance run

Pic: Tania Wimberley crossed a car park to the spectator control

Pic: Hanny Allston with her gold medal

In the Men's race, Nicholas Mulder produced a good clean run with few errors to finish in 37:23, also placing 31st overall and 9:40 down on the winning performance by Daniel Hubmann (SUI). Daniel also put in a easy victory, beating Russian Dmitry Tsvetkov by 33 seconds. Both Tania and Nicholas were extremely happy with their runs and their times, if not necessarily their final positions.

Pic: Nicholas Mulder during the Middle Distance

Pic: Nicholas Mulder punching one of the controls on the course

Pic: Daniel Hubmann poses with his gold medal after the Prize Giving ceremony

This brought to an end South Africa's participation in the Orienteering at the World Games as the team can't compete in the Relay event tomorrow, which is in a 2 men + 2 women format. We'll be there watching with great interest however as it will undoubtedly be an extremely tight and exciting battle. It would be very hard to find a favourite for the title out of Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Switzerland and Great Britian. Any of a number of teams could spring a surprise on the day.

Pic: Travelling back to our hotel on one of the lavisciously decorated tour buses here in Taiwan

Otherwise we continue to enjoy Taiwan and have now gotten used to the sights, sounds and smells of the city. It is definitely a city that grows on you and which you slowly learn to enjoy. This evening after dinner (and the 30 minute bus ride to the catering centre) we popped in at the main South African hangout in Kaohsiung, the Pig and Whistle, which was hosting the SA Team for the evening. Boerewors rolls, Hunters Dry, DSTV Supersport (live!) and quite a few familiar accents were on offer. We even managed to drag the 2 Candians (Mike and Sarah) with in there with us. After that it was back to Love Pier for the nightly fireworks display as well as the 'Local Delicasies' market before heading back to our hotel.

Pic: Grilled squid at the World Games Plaza's at the 'Delicasies' Bazaar.

Pic: Bamboo juice on sale at the World Games Plaza

Pic: Mike Smith (CAN) takes in one of the local bars on our way home. One of many with some great names.

Sprint Race - Tania has great run

We've just returned from the World Games Sprint Race Final, which was held at the Museum of Fine Art in Kaosiung, Taiwan. As predicted it was hot and muggy (imagine trying to do a sprint race around Saint Lucia KZN in the middle of January!), although in reality it was probably a fraction more comfortable than the last two days.

Russia (Andrey Khramov) and Finland (Minna Kauppi) were the unsurprising winners of the race, although Khramov had a tough challenge from Switzerland's Daniel Hubmann, winning by only 1.6 seconds.

From a South African perspective though, it was Tania Wimberley who had a great run in the Ladies category, finishing with a time of 20:20 (6:07 behind the winner) to place 31st out of 36 competitors. This was a great effort that put athletes from Lithuania, Estonia, Canada and Slovakia behind her. Despite this, she still feels that she could easily find 2 or more minutes of mistakes on her part.

In the Men's race, Nicholas Mulder finished in a time of 17:24 (winner was 13:11) to put him 34th out of the field of 36 runners. As per Tania, there were probably about 1:10 worth of mistakes that could have seen a slightly higher position on the leaderboard.

Overall, this is a fair result for Team South Africa given the higher level of competition here then your regular World Champs. With fewer nations represented in the Orienteering at the World Games than in other World events, it is very tough to move away from the bottom of the field.

Tomorrow (Saturday) we have our second and final opportunity to impress with a good result when the Middle Distance takes place in the afternoon. The venue is Chengcing Lake, on the east side of Kaosiung. The weather should once again be very warm and humid, but the slightly longer distances could start proving difficult for some athletes in those given conditions. Starts are from 12h30 local time (or 06h30 S.A. time).

On Sunday is the Team Relay event, but unforunately South Africa doesn't have the 2 men and 2 women needed to enter a team.

(Sorry, no photos today, will get some more up tomorrow!)

Brilliant Opening Ceremony

Last night the Opening Ceremony of the World Games took place at the newly built Main Stadium in Kaosiung, Taiwan. This stadium is a remarkable piece of architecture designed and built specifically for the games.

Pic: Main Stadium, Kaosiung, Taiwan

The Opening ceremony was, as expected a grand affair, with an entertaining cultural and musical line up. The show was capped with the customary fireworks show, even better than the previous night's opening of the World Games Plaza.

Pic: Fireworks finale at the Main Stadium

The highlight though has to be walking into the arena with the rest of Team South Africa. We have one of the larger teams at the games and definitely the second largest presence at the opening ceremony, after hosts Taiwan. Just before entering the stadium in the parade of nations, we entered the tunnel below the main stand where the massed South African voices struck up a booming 'Shozaloza' to counter some patriotic war cry from the Swiss team close behind us. With the 100 strong team, it was enough to send shivers down any teams back. It is truly a priviledge to be here.

Pic: Team South Africa shortly before entering the Main Stadium

The Games were officially opened by the President of Taiwan before we were entertained to an enjoyable and interactive international music ensemble.

Pic: The 105 teams at the World Games lined up inside the stadium with Team South Africa in the foreground

Movie Clip: 40'000 stadium seats filled to capacity together with another 5'000 people watching and listening from outside

The Taiwanese people have been extremely gracious hosts and very friendly. We have been constantly greeted and encouraged wherever we go in and around the city. We've now had to stop and pose for countless photographs with the locals. One of the more remarkable encounters was with a South African-Taiwanese couple. He was originally from Ferndale, Randburg, a few blocks from where Tania lives. More amazingly, he and his wife were married in the exact hotel where we are currently staying. This in a city with hundreds of hotels.

Not everything yesterday was about the opening ceremony. Earlier in the day we also visited the official model event in preparation for the orienteering competition. This took place in the Central Park in the middle of the city. Conditions were of course hot and muggy, but we survived. The mapping is very good and it should be quite enjoyable.

Pic: Control point during the model event at Central Park, Kaosiung, Taiwan.

Later this afternoon is the first competition of the Orienteering at the World Games. It is the Sprint Distance Final. Tania starts at 14h03 local time with Nicholas off at 15h08. Taiwan time is 6 hours ahead of South African local time. As per the recent World Cup event in Finland, there will be live tracking of the athletes via a GPS transmitter that we wear on our back. Full live-updates and tracking will be available through the World Games website at http://wg2009.orienteering.org/

The World Games in Taiwan

Team South Africa has arrived in Kaosiung, Taiwan for the 8th World Games.

South Africa has a team of about 70 athletes representing the country in 11 of the sporting codes taking place at the Games. Orienteering is one of these, being represented by Tania Wimberley and Nicholas Mulder with Ian Bratt as the team official. In total, the Games is hosting about 4800 competitors representing 105 nations in 31 different sports codes. All these sports are Olympic recognised, but currently are not part of the Olympic programme. The World Games are in effect the younger brother / sister of the Olympics.

Pic: Tania and Ian at Kaosiung Airport

The SA team arrived in Kaosiung Airport to a rapturous welcome from the Games organising committee. We were quickly bussed to the accreditation centre and then our hotel. As the Orienteering programme is early in the Games programme (we will be the first SA sports discipline to compete at this years Games), we immediately left the rest of Team SA for our own orienteering hotel.

Pic: Ian, Tania and Nicholas at the accreditation centre

The weather here is Kaosiung is very warm and extrely humid. You break into an immediate sweat every time you leave the air-conditioned buildings. To make matters worse, the Sprint and Middle distance races (taking place on Saturday and Sunday) that we will be competing in, will take place in the early afternoon! To add a bit of spice, we also presently have a tropical depression bearing down on the country out of the Pacific, with an expected arrival late on Saturday.

Yesterday was our first full day in Taiwan and we used it to acclimatise and recover from jet lag. We took in a few of the sights of the city, including one from the top of a 17-storey department store.

Pic: Nicholas in front of part of the city skyline

Pic: We also managed to pose with the 2 mascots of the World Games, Gao Mei and Syong Ge

Last night was the official opening of the World Games Plaza, which is the cultural and entertainment venue for the World Games. The opening, music arena and cultural and food stands were packed with thousands of Kaosiung residents who also took in one of the biggest and best fireworks displays I've ever seen.

Pic: World Games Plaza opening fireworks display from the True-Love Pier

We also had a good walk around the food stands, immersing ourselves in the sights and smells of eastern cuisine. Needless to say, we didn't taste as we don't want to risk any unusual foods before our races.

Pic: Ian in front of one of the many food stands selling unusal (by western standards) cuisine.

Today we will be going to the official model event for the orienteering, before attending the Opening Ceremony at the newly completed 40'000 seater stadium that were purpose built for these Games.

We expect a superb celebration. One of the remarkable things is the level of support that the whole population of the city has given the World Games. They are truly treating is as the biggest ecent in Taiwan in 2009 and many years. Wherever you go in the city, you have questions as to which country you are here to compete for. The level of support from SASCOC has also been superb, due also to strong support from the National Lottery. We had a welcoming dinner at the SA Team hotel together with the South African dimplomatic representation to the country last night. Jointly, SASCOC and the National Lottery have enabled South Africa to send a strong team to the World Games in the hope of doing well in all the sports we're entered into. The team includes other sports such as Rugby 7's, Lifesaving, Dance Sport, Water skiing and so on.

I'll be keeping regular blog updates on the World Games in the next few days. In the meantime, more information about the Orienteering at the World Games can be found here. The information includes venues, race distances as well as the start lists for the Sprint Distance race taking place on Saturday.

Junior National Team in Italy

The South African Junior Team is currently in Italy, preparing for the Junior World Champs next week. The team consists of 6 women and 1 man, with 2 team officials. They're currently in the Italian Dolomites, near a town called Primiero, encountering lots of climb, spectacular scenery and plenty of mountain thundershowers.


The team (left to right) is Zoe, Bradley, Salome, Stephanie, Jessica H., Jessica L., and Sarah. Team officials are Richard Lund (manager) and Nicholas Mulder (coach).

Wrap-up from Finland

Well, the World Cup in Finland is over. The final two races (Middle and Sprint distances) were a definite improvement for me. Although the final placings on each event weren't great, I was still quite happy with the improvement in my orienteering technique compared to the Long distance race.

On the middle, I had a fair run, with few mistakes (no major ones) and a slightly faster running speed in the forest. The GPS tracking for Nordic Champs / World Cup allowed for some great internet spectating, but also for some good post-race analysis for the runners.

Below is a section of my GPS route over the first 4 controls. Although I had good contact with the map and was always aware of my exact position, it's clear that I now need to focus on running more directly, rather then bouncing around like a pinball.


The GPS tracking system that was used at NOC is a superb development for orienteering. Competitors could be tracked live over the internet. The tracking also allows a spectator to analyse every competitors route in elapsed start intervals or head-to-head with a mass start.

Results, split times and the GPS tracking for all the NOC races can be found here.

As predicted, the Sprint Qualification was fast and furious. With 33 runners in each heat and only 11 going through to the final, you needed to finish within 27 - 36 seconds of the heat winner to make it through!

As also predicted, I was never in with a chance. I would not have put money on myself, even with odds of 100-1. I ran a pretty clean race, with a 30 second route choice error to # 2 and a double back leaving # 15 (10 seconds), but I was still 4 minutes off.


I thus joined the crowds in the central market place in Salo to watch the Sprint Final later in the day. Once again, a great PR exercise with live television coverage incorporating the GPS tracking on display at the finish. There were some great performances from the world's best, and some very tight competition once again. It was interesting to note that none of the 34 men in the final caught the person stating just 1 minute ahead.


With Finland over, I can now focus once again on the World Games in July and World Champs in August. Finland was a good tester to see where my orienteering ability was against some tough international competition. I've come away from it feeling reasonably positive and fully aware of my weaknesses.

Up Next
The South African National Team still has various events coming up this year. First however, the Junior Team (their blog is here travel to Italy to compete in the Junior World Champs, 5 - 12 July. The Senior team however first compete in the World Games (17 - 19 July) in Taiwan and then the World Champs (15 - 23 August) in Hungary. We'll have more blog postings on these competitions in the coming months.

Nicholas Mulder

Nordic Champs

, Well, the first half of Nordic Champs in Salo, Finland is over. The Long distance took place on Saturday and the Relay on Sunday. The region around Salo is simply beautiful!


I had a so-so run at the Long. The terrain is very complex, and the GPS tracking of various athletes showed some major mistakes, even amongst the worlds best. I had 2 major mistakes, one of 10 minutes and another of 5 minutes. Then there were lots of smaller mistakes within the control circle at various controls.

Looking at the bright side, it could have been worse. I at least had some decent legs, particularly towards the end of the course when I got used to the map and when my endurance stamina was still going strong. My running speed on the terrain is still poor however, and this is one item I will need to focus on at the Middle distance.

Results, split times and GPS tracking for the race is available here.


As I'm the only South African here, I got to watch the relay from the side lines. Fascinating stuff once again. Sweden seem to be in very strong form at the moment, in both mens and womens as well as the junior categories. Some countries managed to field 2 or 3 relay teams, with the 'B' teams quite often giving their 'A' team compatriots a good run for their money.

The GBR mens team where one of those.


There are 2 races left. On Tuesday we have the Middle distance, where I hope to improve my performance. Then on Wednesday it is the Sprint, which will take place in and around the suburbs of Salo. It will be fast!

Nicholas Mulder