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.