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).