SA National Orienteering Squad

Relay Tomorrow

2011-08-19T22:09:00.000+02:00

The final event of WOC 2011 kicks off tomorrow just after 12 dor the ladies and at 15h15 for the mens relay.
Mike is going to run out first, then Nick and Jeremy will anchor the SA team.
live tracking will be available on the WOC website - but only for 17 teams - and we are unlikely to be one of those 17. Starting as team 36 of 40 we aim to improve on our starting position int he finish chute.

Thank you everybody for the encouragement this year. It has had mixes outcomes, but largely been a successful trip.

Sprint Qualifications - A Dsq Disaster! but SAfricans all safe (maybe)

2011-08-17T00:31:00.000+02:00

It's 11pm on Tuesday night - the Sprint Event Day. The Sprint Final has taken place and Linnea Gustafsson (SWE) and Daniel Hubmann (SUI) have been crowned World Champions. The extraordinary part however, is that despite the Finals now being all done and over, there are still no official results from the Qualifications held earlier this morning. We don't know the official final positions of the South African competitors in this earlier event (other than none of us qualified for the Final), nor do we know if any of us have been disqualified!

The DSQ's

The disqualification issue is quite important, as a large percentage of the field were initially disqualified due to issues of crossing uncrossable areas and boundaries. A rough count and unofficial comments suggest that about 11 women and 39 men were originally disqualified. Thankfully, hearsay has none of the South Africans in this list (so far). The primary error seems to be a lot of athletes accidentally or intentionally cutting across some lawns to the last control that had been marked 'out of bounds' (olive green) on the map.

Pic: The finish arena and the 'out of bounds' grass lawns that were marked in olive-green colour.

However, two other 'hot spots' were also noted, where competitors may have crossed an olive green flower garden (west of control 41) and two 'uncrossable' walls (near control 46).

Left: Control # 41 and Right: Control # 46 (images from Men's B heat)

It is unknown weather anyone has been disqualified for mistakes near #41, but the organisers did initially decide not to disqualify runners for crossing the walls near #46 as they said this would have resulted in over 100 disqualifications (over 50% of the field!!!), resulting in a ludicrous situation.

There is no need to point out that there has subsequently been a lot of upset people and heated debate. It has not been a good day for elite international orienteering. Matters were made worse by the imminent Sprint Final in the afternoon. With live TV broadcasts and hundreds of waiting spectators, no delay could be afforded and the organisers had to rush decisions without proper thought and process. At least to some degree, the main favourites and higher ranked athletes had managed to keep most of their noses clean and were all in the finals as expected. There were a few exceptions though, with matters getting more complicated when some runners were 'temporarily' reinstated and added to the final field, whilst others weren't (or perhaps couldn't be notified in time).

From a South African perspective, what is known is the following:
1) The qualification race took place in the town of Aix-les-Bains. Good warm weather, nice crowds and a nice mix of forest and urban.
2) Jeremy ran Heat A, finishing approximately 28th (before Dsq's) in a time of 19:13 (+4:04 to the winner). He is slightly worried in that he doesn't know whether he ran out of bounds near #41. He definitely didn't run across any flower beds, but a poorly drawn part of the map leaves a grassy gap that he thinks he may have run down. Otherwise a good run which he is fairly happy with, loosing some time in a few small places.
3) Nicholas ran in Heat B, originally finishing 31st in 19:32 (+4:30). There is also concern here as he cut down the edge of the cliff / wall to the east of #46. The big question is where is the edge of the crossable part of the wall (solid grey line) next to the road and which part is uncrossable (solid black line). Nicholas had a very good run, only loosing 10-15 seconds in total (controls 4 - indecision and control 6 - not accurate whilst attacking the control) and is very happy with all his route choices.
4) Michael is the only one who has kept his nose very clean. He doesn't have any worries and is confident he avoided all the areas for potential disqualification. However, he had problems early on, loosing time on some early controls in the forest section. This is his first WOC, so it was undoubtedly a big learning curve on his favourite event distance. He originally finished approximately 29th in 20:49, with many minutes of mistakes. All three heats had approximately 45 runners in them.

Here is Nicholas' map:

From Orienteering Maps

So an interesting day for the team. After all the confusion, we took time out to visit the two main control sites that were causing so much trouble to try and make sense of the confusion. To put it bluntly, the map in these areas is sub-standard. When a few orienteers make a mistake, they are probably to blame. However, when such large portions of the field (all elite athletes at the top of the sport and all of whom know the rules very well) make mistakes, there must be some other faults.

Control #41

Most competitors approached control #41 from the north, entering the lawns below it via the passageway near the water fountain. On exiting the tunnel and turning left, you needed to jump the end of a crossable fence and then avoid the olive green flowerbed en route to the control. The map indicates this will require you to run to the right. However...

Pic: Jeremy points out a grassy area that separates the flowerbed from the adjacent hedge in front of the sidewalk cafe (which is indicated on the map in pink - also out of bounds).

Pic: The gap between the hedge and the flowerbed from the west. Control #41 was placed on the balcony of the casino in the background. Despite the gap between hedge and flowerbed not appearing on the map, also note the missing gap in the hedge!

Control #46

Competitors approached #46 from either the south-west (from the small dashed footpath) or from the south-east (along the larger brown footpath). The control was in the inside corner of the wall, with a significant drop that essentially also made it a cliff. Another nearby wall / cliff runs parallel to the brown footpath. Both walls / cliffs have a black (unpassable) and grey (passable) section to them. In Sprint Orienteering, this dictates whether you are allowed to cross or not.

Pic: The view from below. The control was above the wall on the far right of the image. Jeremy is standing in a bend of the wall which seperates the uncrossable section to the right and the crossable section to the left. Jeremy and Michael both ran very far around the left (even around the tree) just in case.

Pic: The wall / cliff next to the upper track. Jeremy stands at the point which on the map indicates the break between the crossable section (to our right) and the uncrossable section (to our left, going past the tree).

Pic: Just past the tree, in the 'uncrossable section' of the wall, there are two embankments where it is very easy to run down and up without realising you are crossing an uncrossable wall / cliff. At speed, most athletes would assume one of these two gaps is the break point between the crossable and uncrossable sections. The cliff / wall further to our left starts to get quite big and uncrossable from this left-hand gap.

A look back to yesterday

Monday was a public holiday in France, and was also the Opening Ceremony of the World Championships. It was a very good affair, with a few highlights like 100/200m French track athlete Christoph Lemaitre being present to unfurl the French flag. He jetted off the his own World Champs in Korea the next morning! The highlight for the South African team was walking into the arena first!!! 'South Africa' in French is 'Afrique du Sud', so we got the privledge to enter first just ahead of Germany (Allemagne) and Australia (Australie).

We'll get back to you on the official results of the Sprint Qualification... when they're finally available. At least the jury will get a good day to decide on things.

Long and Middle Distance

2011-08-15T11:59:00.000+02:00

On the day of the long Jeremy and I dropped off Nic at the quarantine area and drove to the arena (with a slight detour for Jeremy's daily coffee run). Reading that Thierry would be in Nic's heat we knew that he wouldn't be happy (skewing of world ranking points). We were right when Nic came in and complained that he could have been a few places up if he had just run a bit faster.

The middle was a bit more exciting when we left the car at the quarantine area. Both Jeremy and I had forgotten our control description holders and strapping tape. This was not really the way that I wanted to start my first WOC race, but with the help of the Germans and the Canadians we were all set. I started in the first start group and fluffed the first control slightly. Other than around a 10 minute mistake on my long leg and around a 5 minute mistake on the other long leg I didn't have such a bad race. After all of the hype about the terrain the race was not as difficult as expected. Jeremy would have had 600 world ranking points had he not made a 6 minute mistake. Nic also complained about making some mistakes.

We have just done the sprint model in Chambery. It was pouring this morning (and is surprisingly sunny now) so the park there was a little slippery. Nic complained about the pretty poor map quality.

Some photos of the middle and long qualifications: (all pictures are from worldofo.com)

Training for WOC

2011-08-11T22:29:00.000+02:00

Sorry about the apparent information blackout. I think that we have all been pretty busy with other things after coming home late from training and driving around.

The maps here are really detailed, it's incredible how difficult it is to run quickly through the terrain without completely losing your place and being forced to relocate. Murray Strain put it nicely when he said that you can know exactly where you are, walk 20m and no longer know where you are any more. It was a challenge for me on La Revard yesterday where I was a bit too concerned about following some elephant tracks. Needless to say, one incredibly straight road had me confused so badly that I ran north until I recognised something.

We have been enjoying the local scenery and food. Nic seems to have an obsession with pain au chocolat and Jeremy often sits down to try and find four leaf clovers.

We are all looking forward to the start of WOC on saturday (for Nic) and on sunday (for Jeremy and I). I can perhaps say that I am pretty scared of the forest.. However I am really excited for the sprint on tuesday. We even checked out the final area in Chambery which also seems amazing.

Thanks for all of the support so far.

Day 6. Snow and exercise

2011-06-02T20:56:00.000+02:00

With the reduced training yesterday due to the weather, today we squeezed in two sessions. The first session (11.2km) was at lower altitudes so there was no snow and it was a dry run, but it was still in single digit temperatures.

The afternoons training (8km) was still patchy with snow, and on the higher slopes there it was still a foot deep in places. This made for very wet and cold running. The controls had been collected already so Nick and I took turns leading out. We would then regroup at the control location to confirm with each other that it was the place. One control has us both waiting at different cliffs, my will broke first and I went looking for him...
he was right.

The terrain is extremely technical, but I am feeling a lot more confident in navigating through it, so the weeks effort has been worth it. Today was a tough day and I think we will both sleep well. Tomorrow we have one more forest session planned and then we are going to skip the sprint map session in Annecy, and rather go for a tourist drive. We drive through Annecy on Satuday morning on the way to the airport, so we can squeeze in a quick session if there is time.

The week has gone much quicker than I though it would. We will spend the weeks and months between now and WOC going over the routes and maps many times to determine what the best strategies are for different route options, what worked and what didn't.

The most important tool for this forest is compass work. Sounds obvious I know, but with so many re-entrants, depressions and knolls, the exit angle and map orientation are crucial as a couple degrees error could easily send you into the wrong valley.

Here are some videos of running through the various terrains.

Running in the clear forest the down a path with a bit of snow at the end.

This one is of a less runnable area. No possibility of running in a straight line ever.

Some stills of the terrain.

Looking into a runnable area of forest, there is often brashings on the floor. Especially after the heavy snow yesterday.

This is a less runnable area. some undergrowth on top of the very rocky forest floor.

This is a very runnable area - from a mapping perspective, but the moss covered limestone rocks make it very slow, almost like boulder hopping in a kloof, but in he middle of the forest.

This is a view of our little village taken on the way back after the afternoons training camp. the church in the middle and our accommodation in the the house on the far right at the end of the row just above the church.

Day 5. White Forest

2011-06-01T19:50:00.000+02:00

The day started slower than most - with another late night meaning another late morning.

The weather stared clearing and across the valley we could see snow on the hills. As time marched on it started clearing so it was only at about 13h00 after brunch that we headed out to training.

The Morning View from the front door
snow on the distant mountain slopes.

As we got closer and closer to the start - the snow got more prolific and this is us driving into the starting parking lot.

Nick decided not to go out on a run today claiming that he had already been orienteering in the snow and it wasn't that much fun. The Irish team were also returning from their training runs and they were saying that the going was very tough, and potentially dangerous as all the limestone gullies were now covered with snow and it was very slippery and treacherous, threatening injury that would ruin the rest of the weeks opportunities.

Jeremy however decided this was to be a run to remember - clothed in 3 layers of orienteering clothing and a balaclava buff. He first posed for some pictures before heading into the white forest.

Jeremy Running out of the forest well dressed.Not all forest is runnable - especially in the snow.

This it the white forest around the parking area.

and here, just for mike - is running through the forest
-not much opportunity to run fast.-

So that was the orienteering today. a quick 40 minutes in the snow.

Typical White Forest.

Jeremy with a big smile - that was fun.

It ended with Irish Team needing a lift as their key was no longer being recognized by their car.
It really was cold then... What made it more difficult was that it was freezing, now down to 2 degrees, and they were cold from orienteering in the snow and they couldn't warm up in the car cause it wouldn't start. But wait there is more - there was no cell phone reception there either so they couldn't phone the rental company for assistance.
We gave them a lift to Aix-Les-Bains where they had another car, and cell reception so they could make a plan. The irony is that the rental agency couldn't work out where the car was, yet kept insisting that they wait at the car, which they couldn't do. It could have been worse, it could have been us:-)

Here is some info on our chateau.
It is in the small village of Arith, right in the middle of all the training events - but far away from anything else. No shops to speak of, and the nearest petrol station is a 40 minute drive. But is it pieceful. we drove around the town trying to find the place and eventually stopped at another accomodation venue to ask. Even then we battled. It is the lower level of a three story house, where we have half of the lowest section. Every thing is raw pine and actually really nice - espicially at the price.

La Tour, Arith France

Most of our time is spent on our computers at the dining room table. Me trying to keep up with work and Nick getting his i tunes and i phone sorted out - it is incredible how long it can take when you have the time... and he never listens to the entire song. I have listened to every genre, artist and era, all in bite sized bits.

Nicks Usual pose.

Tomorrow: double session and more snow perhaps?

Day 4. The weather is worse but the orienteering better.

2011-05-31T21:30:00.000+02:00

The weather changed today - started out ok with clouds in the distance, but by lunchtime it was clouded over and by the time we were ready to go training - it was raining.The training event was a long drive - 5 mins straight up the hill. then the walk to the start. The official information said it was 1km to the start, but that was obviously for teams with a manger that could drop them off and then collect them close to the finish.
The parking lot is off the map on the top right corner. We started in the quarry - just below the number 7. Jeremy's GPS failed to record, perhaps due to the rainy conditions, so no track on the map today. We mad a mistake in deciding when to go training, and this was the picture of what greeted us at the finish at 16h30. The car park had 10 cars and a gazebi in it when we started the training 2 hrs previously.
and this was the trip down the hill back to the accommodation. We were wet and cold and ready for supper - and now we really needed to do some laundry too.
Supper was great and another evening at computers for both of us. The sun just went down - long days make for productive days - it is 20 to 10 in the evening.

Day 3 - O gets worse before it gets better

2011-05-31T19:14:00.000+02:00

The weather stayed great for the first training day - the third day of our trip.

the view from our chateau - the basement of a house in Arith - Rural France
with lightening fast internet access.

Tired bodies from 2 days racing in unfamiliar terrain kept us lazing around the accommodation till after lunchtime. We then headed back to the Le Revard II map - this time at a new scale - 1:10 000, but the printing was not the same standard and Jeremy found the clearings difficult to read. LITF was Jeremy's summary of the days training. My worst orienteering day so far. I could hardly walk this morning my stabilizers are so overworked, and i just couldn't get in contact with the map today.
Nicks take on the days training was that he took it easy with low intensity recovery session. Flowing through the controls, many similar to yesterday but in a different order and approaching from different directions made for a good session. He did miss the north lines on the map however and had to keep ensuring the map was correctly orientated.

The training map for the day. only friends and family get to see Jeremy's GPS track. Notice the absence of North lines. they were missed! Control 1 was the same as control 5 from yesterdays race, and Jeremy got it wrong again.

Jeremy wasn't the only person battling today - there were some other athletes who came back to the start looking like they should find another sport. Thierry however took the day off from orienteering and cycled up the the event to see what was happening.

The team then went into town, Aix-Les-Bains, to buy provisions for the rest of the week. Carrefour supermarket was an interesting experience. Many of our staple foods were conspicuous in their absence. Yogurt is big, Fresh milk not so much. Pasta sauces were also a little scarce and we never did find the chicken pieces. the standard Nutella and bread was easy to add to the trolley - which was surprisingly cheap - perhaps relative to the Norway costs of last year. Self catering is definitely the way to go while traveling on a budget. The difference is astounding.Jeremy then dropped into Decathlon (sport shop) for some energy drink and got to work the self service check out. The honesty system is impressive - and it seems to work here.

The day was finished off with another late night. Jeremy reviewing papers and closing out with some angry birds, while Nick worked on the music compilations, labeling and rating for his new i phone.

We finish off this blog with some pictures of our walk round Annecy on Saturday.

Nick the photographer. from the top of the hill overlooking the old town.

Good thing this isn't Nicks front door. Many years of subsidence have made it skew - it wasn't built that way - so the guide map says.

The old town where we had some expensive sandwiches with not so expensive ice cream.

Day 2 - French Long Distance National Champs

2011-05-31T12:29:00.000+02:00

Day 2 started with blue sunny skies: at 5h50!
The sun gets up early here and I hadn't closed the shutters.
With no food in our accommodation at all we were off early in the search of sustenance.
Being a Sunday Morning, nothing was open at all - so we pegged our hopes on registration having something to eat.
Turn out that parking however, was 2km from registration.
Jeremy had a 9h49 start so timing was tight.

2km walk to registration for a cup of coffee (espresso only) and a piece of cherry pie and sponge cake. 2km walk back to the car gave Jeremy 20 minutes to get ready for his start.This is the view from the starting area. On top of the world with upward of 10 para-gliders enjoying the weather..

The race was a tough one. 40/169 competitors dnf or dsq including 80% of the Irish and British squads.
The race was 14.1km straight line, but there were very few straight line options. green was very green and white was hard work. Jeremy found it very difficult to locate in the forest and spent a long time up and down the road to 5 confirming his exact location before going into the forest.

Jeremy's course and route for the French National Long Distance Champs. Thierry Gueorgiou won by 9 mins in 1h31 putting all comers to shame.

Nicholas ran 2h48 and Jeremy got good value for money with 3h42. He never actually got lost, he says, "I just needed to confirm exactly where I was."
Only 1 water point on the course made it very difficult going. Jeremy walking the majority of the second part of the course with no reserves and dehydrated.
http://www.nationalesavoie2011.fr/ has the results for all classes.

It was a long day out, with another 2km walk back to the car and with most things still closed it was a small cafe that provided supper and provisions for breakfast the following morning.
According to the GPS on Jeremy's arm, he did 30.7km that day - 23km in the race and the rest warming up and getting between the car, registration, start and finish venues.

Next up.
Good value and not so good orienteering.

WOC Training camp 3 - June 2011

2011-05-31T12:15:00.000+02:00

2/3 of the South African Squad selected to go to world champs in August are attending the last official training camp in Aix-Les-Bains France. Jeremy Green and Nicholas Mulder are orienteering on terrain and maps similar to that which will be used for world champs in August (http://www.woc2011.fr/) in an attempt to get familiar with the terrain, mapping style and what training is necessary between now and then.

The trip started off with the a race on Saturday where, as they were flying into the area that morning, Jeremy and Nick requested late starts. Little did they know that with a first start at 12h30 and 1 minute start intervals, they would start at 16h55 and 16h59.
(http://annecyso.fr/)
It was the regional middle distance champs and both Nick and Jeremy were happy with their performance on the day.

Here is Jeremy's map with course and track.
Check out attackpoint.com for commentary on the race.

However with the extremely late starts, but the time they finished and got ready to go shopping for food for breakfast, nothing was open anymore... the start of the challenge for day 2.

On the way to the start after a walk around the town of Annecy as we drove from the 400m height of the town to over 1600m start position. This was a view of the surrounding mountains en route with the town below on the shore of the lake.

Next blog post:
shops and closing times:
3 days of Orienteering that keeps getting harder not easier:
Sun and stars:

SA team selected for WOC France

2011-04-15T20:08:00.000+02:00

The team that will represent South Africa at the World Orienteering Champs in France in August 2011 has just been announced.

The 3-man team is:

Michael Crone (Wits OC - Johannesburg)
Jeremy Green (AR Club - Johannesburg)
Nicholas Mulder (Rand OC - Johannesburg)

Unfortunately, no ladies have been selected in 2011.

The team features a mixture of experience and strengths. The new-comer is Michael Crone (21) who will be making his WOC debut. He has previously represented South Africa at JWOC 2010 in Denmark. He will undoubtedly be focusing most of his energies into getting a good result in the Sprint distance event, where he is currently showing superb form. Last weekend, in his first year as a senior, he became South African Sprint distance Champion when he decimated the field on a 3.0km course around the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town.

Pic: Michael Crone at the Gauteng Sprint Cup, December 2010 (photo by Francois Marais)

Jeremy Green (37) is in the team once again for his 4th WOC appearance, after competing in Denmark '06, Ukraine '07 and Norway '10. After suffering serious injuries throughout 2009 and 2010, he'll be hoping for significantly improved performances in 2011 following his recent return to form.

Pic: Jeremy Green at the Gauteng Sprint Cup, December 2010 (Photo by Francois Marais)

Nicholas Mulder (32), will be competing in his 10th WOC, having represented South Africa at every WOC since Scotland in '99, with the exception of Japan '05. With the World Champs in France taking place is some of the most technically challenging terrain of any WOC in history, Nicholas will be hoping to make the most of his technical ability and improve on previous qualification results.

With just under four months to go to the World Championships, the team will now focus their training on the special requirements of the terrain in the Savoie - Grand Revard region of France. The team will make two training trips to the region, firstly in early June for a week-long training camp, and then once again in early August for final acclimatization and adaption to the challenging terrain.

2011 National Squad announcement

2010-12-22T15:48:00.000+02:00

The South African Orienteering Federation's Selection Committee has announced the Senior national squad for 2011 as follows (in no particular order):

Men:

Nicholas Mulder

Jeremy Green

Alex Pope

Garry Morrison

Cobus Van Zyl

Colin Dutkiewicz

Nico Van Hoepen

Michael Crone

Martin Kleynhans

Women:

Tania Wimberley

Margaret Archibald

Cindy Van Zyl

Zoe Brentano

All the athletes listed above will be expect to show steady improvement, commitment and fitness throughout the year. Included in this the above athletes will be required to attend any squad trainings held in their respective provinces as well as track fitness assessments on 14 February 2011, 18 April 2011 and 13 June 2011. Team selection announcements for WOC 2011 in France will be made in April, shortly after the Western Cape Championships.

Any queries can be directed to Michele Botha : selection_committee "'at'" orienteering.co.za

More information on the Selection Committee and the selection process can be found here.

Sprint finish - Race Day 4

2010-10-13T21:29:00.000+02:00

We had a lovely surprise when we unexpectedly met Liz and Peter Mulder at St. Cergue and again at the Sprint in Geneva. Below we pose in the sprint arena with Simone Niggli-Luder (Women's Sprint and World Cup winner 2010) being interviewed on the big screen in the background.

The World Cup sprint made for a thrilling final spectacle before our flight back to SA. In the men's Elite race the first 18 finished within one minute of each other, there were 5 shared places with second placed Graham Gristwood and Matthias Müller missing Daniel Hubmann's top spot by only 9 seconds. In the women's race Simone had another near-invincible run ahead of Helena Jansson with JWOC 2010 star Ida Bobach in third place.

We had a rainy, slippery, slightly slower run.

The complex area around the Geneva Cathedral on the World Cup sprint all-controls map

This then ends our fantastic tour.

Over to the next orienteers!

Up and down - Race Day 3

2010-10-13T21:17:00.000+02:00

We spent the training day in Geneva mostly looking at Geneva (particularly the Old Town sprint area).

The the following day's middle event at St. Cergue just outside Geneva went quite a bit up and down in both the terrain and the races. Cindy was suffering from a cough and runny nose, Tania had an uphill struggle with a control or two and Nico's speed went a bit downhill in the much more runable white forest.

Lots of contours, white and the nasty white bits are actually marked on the St. Cergue Middle map

What to do with the stones from stony ground

2010-10-13T20:52:00.000+02:00

(Just for completeness here's what we did on the last few days, written from home)

Chateau de Chatillon

Lausanne's Gothic Cathedral

More stony ground - Mt. Blanc

2010-10-07T10:20:00.000+02:00

Tania on top of Aiguille de Midi (3842m) after an arduous cable-car journey.

Cindy and Nico getting in some high altitude training with Mt. Blanc in the background.

The bottom-most part of the Mer de Glace ("Sea of Ice") glacier - France's biggest.

Today may be the final post as we're now off to Swiss-land. Depending on how the data networks receive us we'll try to write a few more posts from Geneva.

Wet - Training Day 5

2010-10-05T19:35:00.000+02:00

We had a late start in the hope that the overnight rain would stop for us. It didn’t really. As a result we were unusually late to the training and arrived to a packed car park, with all the national teams out in full force. The area was right in the middle of the WOC 2011 terrain so it seems no teams wanted to miss out on the training opportunity. We all did the shorter of the two courses. The first half proved to be very slow terrain to move over. Rocky (and wet) together with the French’s sporadic felling practices meant there were lots of (wet) branches everywhere.

Tania's course on the training map in the middle of the WOC 2011 embargoed area

To give you some idea Tania was quite pleased with direct, faultless route from 4 to 5 even though the going was slow. Nico also had a clean run there, but felt he was a bit slow. Never the less he was still 3 minutes faster than Tania. Some teams seemed to be able to move faster through the messy forest floor, something worth practicing if you could find similar terrain in SA. Visibility was low, but the now familiar complex contour details seem to be helping ones progress over the course. It is difficult to imagine where in SA we will be able to find such complex contours to practice on.

The second part of the course gave some hope, as by comparison it was possible to run through the forests. Pits continue to be these amazing man eating crevices and are useful navigation tools (if you don’t fall into them). Clearings were again useful (although some felling caused confusion) but the difference between green and white was not so obvious. Despite their name, depressions continue to be a win.

Tania at a control in a depression in the white forest

And that wraps up team SA’s participation in this training camp. Regrettably with just one week it feels like we are have only just scratched the surface of how to master this complex, tough and unforgiving terrain.

A word of thanks to Jean Dermine and his team for organizing the training camp. It was a welcome pleasure not to have to hang out our own training controls and the hot coffee at the end of today’s session was a lovely surprise to help warm up our icy fingers.

No pressure - Training Day 4

2010-10-04T16:00:00.000+02:00

Day 4's training was on the map from Sundays long event. The course we did in the morning was of a similar style of the previous days. Several controls in highly complex areas on one hand verses nice route choice longer legs. Again the trick was to find nice paths on the long legs and to have good safe attack points (as close as possible) into the controls. This was all possible, and relocation is becoming easier in the complex contours (regrettably the need is not necessarily becoming less frequent).

Route choice

On the leg 7-8 Tania and Cindy cut to the path south of the red line once they had crossed the tar road. Nico went north. On 8-9 Nico stayed south of the red line, Tania went north and Cindy did a combination of both. The trick is getting the hang of the speed variation. Fast on the long legs (rocks and vegetation permitting) and then to reduce speed in the complex areas in order to avoid mistakes. Accurate navigation is very possible at a slow pace.

Control picking - with a few hand drawn controls

In the afternoon Nico and Tania went in opposite directions to go do some extra control picking. Tania went cruising around the second part of the morning course. Nico played nice fast ping pong in the complex area around the first part of the morning course.

Moeg - Race Day 2

2010-10-04T15:57:00.000+02:00

A late night and early start set the scene for our long French public event. The previous 4 days of orienteering was starting to take its toll on the legs which felt really tired. The map was just below day 3 training. Again in places the vegetation was thick, the ground rocky and contours very detailed. This meant you had to find nice paths for the long legs which joined the clustering of technical controls. The long legs were around 1.5km, with some climb and even the paths got very rocky. The climb on the long legs was often squeezed into a short space. All courses had lots of route choices which added to the challenge. As this map shows Nico's 9.8km, 440m climb course took him from one corner of the A3 map to the other.

Typical "stony ground" - it tends to slow you down

Light years ahead

2010-10-04T15:48:00.000+02:00

Nico out of the Sprint start block

That evening Nico had a clear advantage being an early starter. He put the light to good use and put in a blistering time on the sprint event. Unfortunately he had a bad brush with a poisonous plant and nearly had to get whisked off to hospital after his race due to an allergic reaction that mad his face look like a pug dog. With the help of powerful headlamps Tania and Cindy had nice races. It was a very special place to do night orienteering around, weaving between the diners, darting through tunnels and making sure you didn’t overshot a control and fall into the canal.

Tania's Course

Middle and O-Show maps

2010-10-04T15:47:00.000+02:00

Tania's Course on the middle map

One of the 6 qualification maps (each competitor ran 3)

Unlikely - Race Day 1

2010-10-02T18:13:00.000+02:00

When receiving our instructions for the O show the organizers said it was unlikely we would qualify for the quarter finals so he didn’t need to give us that information. He was right! But we had fun in the maze of controls spread out on the lawns of Anncey. The lake and the mountains our beautiful backdrop. The O show took place between our middle distance event and our evening sprint.

A lack of English instructions got us to the mornings middle event way to early (as the sun was rising) with the organizers still putting controls out. In fact he gave us directions to the start area, put his headlamp on and rushed off into the dark forests. The 220 m , 1.5 km walk to the start mean much of the course was downhill. This was the first really fast runable forest we’ve been on since our training began. It felt like any other forest, with no real surprises. Although spikes were still an advantage for contouring along the steep slopes, which frustrated Nico no end. The fear of elephant also tracks failed to materialize as the forest had dried out from the previous days rain and it made for a pleasant morning for all.

Cindy after the Middle Race

Tania and Nico around the O-Show course

And now we sign out for our Sprint-race (some of us in the dark) ...

Perspective - Training Day 3

2010-10-01T14:51:00.000+02:00

Seems a little bit of remapping can do wonders. Day 3 was back into the day 1 area, only now it was called something else and more importantly it was remapped. Everything made sense! All the humps & bumps were on, vegetation was sensible and bare rock was now stony ground (still to be avoided). Our maps had a network of some 25 controls. After our now usual map walk to get into the map we dispersed to go control hunting. Depressions proved useful again, but compared to the previous days there were handfuls of things to use. Attackpoints and catch features completely missing on day 2 were waiting for the picking today. The forest remained rough to move through, but at least with a decent map navigation around really bad parts was possible.

The Forests were rather busy with all sorts of O celebrities with all the national teams in full action. Nico was encouraged by the fact that many of them did not hit the controls spot on. The only downside was that it was vey wet underfoot and the lack of studded shoes meant the going was slow and slippery. We were all also rather cold and wet when we returned. But despite that it was our most enjoyable day orienteering.

Relentless - Training Day 2

2010-09-30T19:40:00.000+02:00

The rocks, the depressions, the cliffs. The terrain was relentless and unforgiving. Our line course to the start set the scene as Tania stepped on some soft ground and found her leg being gobbled up by a small hidden hole. Not so easy to extract it either. There were no nice obvious route choice races for the first control so we all set off on our own. It was slow going and accuracy was the key to success. A much better map than yesterday with good contours meant all the humps and bumps were shown. Pits and depressions proved useful navigation tools and bare rock was more familiar. Straight line orienteering was difficult if you were trying to dodge bushes, cliffs and sudden holes in the lime stone. We spend the morning doing their set course of 12 controls. There were several other international teams out on the map and it appeared that the consensus was that the terrain was difficult.

In the afternoon Nico and Tania went out to find 6 more controls (see map) whilst Cindy waited in what eventually turned into a rainy day. On average a more positive orienteering day for us. Our discussion with the organizers at the finish was cut short they rush off to welcome and get photographs of Thierry G as he arrived for his session.

WOC 2011 training camp - Training Day 1

2010-09-30T19:29:00.000+02:00

29 September 2010- Perfect weather and beautiful French scenery guided us to the start of our first day of training. The map made in 1999 was apparently slightly updated. We parked at the ski resort and took a gentle jog to the north of the map were we planned to do a line course. Nico’s carefully planned line proved a challenge as the “white” forest was full of felled trees. The felling practice seems very sporadic with the odd tree here and there cut down and all the rubbish left in the forest. Bare rock was jagged rock scatterings, so not good to run over either. Pits were really big, at least 5 m and wide-no chance of falling in them, although if you did chances are you would never emerge again. After getting a feel for the map on the line course we ran back along 4 controls. Nico and Tania tried some route choice options for the first control. His path option proved best and allowed him some time to wait for me and to be entertained by a falling Scotsman. A real moaner- no blood in sight, but lots of tears and cursing after he stabbed his shin on something.

For our afternoon season we each planned to each take in between 6 and 14 controls on the official pre planned course. Another route choice race for Nico & Tania got us to the first control about the same time. Thereafter we split up to tackle the forest. The forest floor was very busy, lots of humps and bumps which understandable could not be marked. It did mean that you had to really hit the control spot on. A 5-10m deviation meant the control was hidden over another rise. There was a very technical area of 6 controls which proved challenging (see map).

We all encountered swarms of what initially seemed like bees, but apparently were only blue flies. Nico ventured to the controls on the south of the map-bad move. The “white” was not really forest, just not mapped. Or in his word (@#$%^&!!!!!).

We ended the day with a R35 Cappuccino in a coffee shop along the pretty channels in Annecy-Cindy & Nico in the picture here.

Final day of WOC 2010

2010-08-15T11:29:00.000+02:00

Today is the final day of the World Orienteering Championships - 2010 Norway.

It is the relay event, but as mentioned, South Africa won't be participating as it only has 2 men at the champs. Instead, it's time to get out there and join the crowds of spectators. There are no clear favourites, other than maybe Norway who will have a strong home ground advantage as well as the popular support.

You can follow the full action which is about to start on the WOC live feed at http://live.woc2010.com/

It's been nice and peaceful here in the last few days since the last qualification race (no South African made a final - not a big surprise). It's given us time to be tourists, both recreationally as well as sportingly.

Apart from participating in the public 'WOC Tour' races, the SA Team also managed to round up some of its travelling supporters brigade and head out for a bit of sight seeing on one of the rest days. The destination was Røros, a quaint historical mining village about 1 hour away in the Norweigian highlands that is now a World Heritage Site.

Pic: The town of Røros from the nearby slag dump.

Pic: Jenny Bradshaw, Richard Lange, Jeremy and Kirsty Green. Four orienteers with 1 map between them.

Røros is a beautiful town, with plenty of historical building and some interesting mining works. It was formerly a copper mining town, with the mine dumps, smelter and associated workings still dominating the town. The SA team had great fun. Jeremy almost took a memento back home to South Africa (don't know where the air hostesses would have put it on the flight).

Pic: Jeremy - begging his wife for some money...

Great day out. Norway is a beautiful country. Pity is so bloody expensive!

Pic: The copper works in Røros.

Well, that's is from WOC 2010. The South African national squad will be in action later this year, when 3 orienteers travel to a Training camp in France in October as preparation for WOC 2011, which will be in the Alpine east of the country (the Savoie Grand Revard region). We'll try to get some reports from them of their experiences, which will include World Cup races in Geneva, Switzerland as well.

Long Qualifiers (aka long distance bog trotting)

2010-08-11T10:41:00.000+02:00

Tuesday evening saw the qualification races for the Long Distance take place. Once again, the weather was superb with clear skies and mild temperatures. The races were held in the late afternoon, with some participants only starting just after 5pm with the sun low on the horizon (adding an extra dimension of complexity as the first 3 controls were facing west on the men's course).

The South African team of Nicholas Mulder and Jeremy Green had good runs with few mistakes. However, the final results still show the two runners well down the rankings.

Long Distance Qualification Results

Jeremy had a fairly stable run after a few short mess-ups around the first few controls. He settled down nicely after this, particularly on the longer legs where he managed to find a good rhythm and keep up a decent pace, navigating with more confidence than in the last few days. He finished in under 2 hours (1:54:34), his intended goal. However, it still left him 34th and last on his heat, which was a disappointment.

Pic: Nicholas at the penultimate control of the Long Qualifier (photo by Jan Kocbach - World of O)

For Nicholas, some long technically easy, but physical route choices meant that he struggled to finish higher up the rankings. A good start saw him rise as high as 24th position, but two wrong route choices at the end of the course saw him loose 3 minutes of mistakes. In the end, it was 28th position in 1:16:55 on his heat.

Pic: Nicholas' route from the Long Distance Qualifier.

For both runners, the constant running in squishy marshes took its toll. The phrase 'bog-trotting' is particularly appropriate, as it is difficult to accelerate to any high speed on the up and level marshes. For the top elite competitors, it was a tough day, with the winning times extremely fast. Reaching the final 15th qualification place in each heat also proved tough, with most heats requiring a sub-65 minute time to do so.

This brings to an end the South African campaign at WOC 2010. With only 2 runners, the team cannot partake in the 3-man relay on Sunday. Instead, Jeremy and Nicholas will do a few runs in the WOC Tour races, where the majority of the spectators at WOC are participating. More posts to come however as the team will be watching the finals as well as making general comments on their WOC performances.

Tough & techincal terrain for Middle Qualifier

2010-08-09T23:16:00.000+02:00

Team South Africa came away with mixed results in the Middle Distance qualification race at WOC today.Once again, the race was held in perfect running conditions under a blue sky. The repetitive weather warnings for rain in the last few days have been for nought.

Nicholas Mulder came off best of the South Africans, finishing in 26th place in Heat B in a time of 32:11. In so doing, he improved on his best Middle performance of 27th, which he posted in WOC 2007 Ukraine. Although he avoided any big mistakes on the course, Nicholas was initially unhappy with his run, which was described as 'scrappy' and without confidence. The results placing was thus a bit of a surprise and highlighted the importance of avoiding big mistakes in this low visibility terrain.

Pic: Nicholas' map and route of the Middle Distance Qualification

Jeremy Green's race got off to a nightmare start, when he immediately lost 25 minutes on the first control. In the end, his GPS logger shows that he passed within a short distance of the control on numerous occassions to no avail, logging 2.5km on a leg of just 350m. (Ed: I'll try to get Jeremy to hand over his GPS map data. Emphasis on 'try'). He had a further mistake on the course of approximately 5 minutes, but thereafter settled down in a good pace, finishing well off the field in 1:05:58. However, he did manage to put 2 runners behind him who were disqualified. As mentioned yesterday, this still allowed him to improve on his overall best placing in the middle from 38th to 32nd!

Middle Distance Results and Splits

There were numerous upsets on both the B (Nicholas') and C (Jeremy's) Heats, with some big names not making the 15 place cut for the final. It seems like the early part of the course, which took runners through light green forest took its toll, with big mistakes recorded throughout the field.

Pic: Jeremy Green (photo by Jan Kocbach - World of O')

The Middle Final will take place on Friday. In the meantime however, the focus moves on to tomorrow afternoon's Long Distance qualifier, which will be held on an adjoining map. Jeremy is off at 16h24 and Nicholas at 17h00. The terrain is expected to be slightly faster in running speed, with larger marshes and better visibility. Some light rain is also forecast in the early afternoon (again).

You can follow the proceedings LIVE as it happens at the WOC Live website. The interesting part is that all the men will be wearing tracking devices that will allow everyone too see their location and route on the map LIVE. This should add an extra dimension of pressure for the South African runners (Jeremy has already started thinking that his ankle feels a bit sore).

Footnote: In other news, the first stage of the WOC Tour took place today. Kirsty Green had her first taste of the Norwegian marshes right at the start, with the start control sited right in the centre of one! However, she had it easy compared to one Ladies elite runner (obviously not a Norwegian) who had one of the first start times with her. The elite runner set off at pace through the marsh, running straight onto a circular brown patch that looked like dried mud. Kirsty was kind enough to stop and lend assistance when she promptly went up to her waist in thick muddy marsh. I'm sure she was also kind enough not to smile too much.

SA Runner gets 1st place (in the sprint finish split)

2010-08-08T23:06:00.000+02:00

Trondheim has had another wonderful, sunny day during which it hosted the Sprint Qualification and Final races. The team had a mediocre performance today at the Sprint Qualification race, that unsurprisingly didn't see any South Africans qualify.

Pic: The official 2010 team photo in front of our hotel.

Jeremy Green was the first South African runner off, but made mistakes at 1 and 12 saw him fall well down the results board. In the end, he finished 31st (out of 33) in a time of 23:12 (+8:11). Only the top 15 runners qualified for the final. He says that he would have been happy with a sub-20 time without this two big mistakes, placing him around 28th in his heat. The good news is that he kept his spirits up by once again taking the fastest split on the run-in from the last control to the finish on his heat.

Pic: Jeremy Green on his way to the fastest finish split time (Photo by WOC 2010 Organisation)

Nicholas Mulder started a little while later and had a fair race. He was moderately happy, given this is his worst discipline. However, he rued two major route choice mistakes on the course, each costing him 20 seconds when he didn't see the gaps in some impassable fences. He went on to finish in 32nd position (out of 34) in a time of 19:23 (+4:26).

Pic: Nicholas' map of the Sprint Qualification (Heat 1).

Pic: Nicholas Mulder in the run-in at the finish (Photo by WOC 2010 Organisation)

The results put South Africa towards the bottom of the list of countries, something the team is keen to improve on in the forthcoming Middle distance (Monday) and Long distance (Tuesday) qualification races. The team has started keeping score however. Present standings for SA are:

RSA 2 - USA 0 (big smiles here for South Africa!)
RSA 1 - BRA 1
RSA 1 - CHN 1

There are however, numerous scores which read 0 - 2, and which won't be listed here due to possible development of inferiority complexes.

Full results and split times can be seen at the official WOC website here.

In the afternoon, the team spectated at the Sprint Finals. Surprisingly, the final area was technically earlier than the qualification race. Times were thus extremely tight at the top of the leaderboard. The Swiss men dominated, taking 1st and 2nd place (only their first ever Sprint Gold!) with a young Frenchman a surprise 3rd. The overall time difference from 1st place to 7th was only 7 seconds!!! Crazy! In the Ladies, Simone Niggli took yet another gold, this time by the narrowest of margins (0.7 seconds), with only another 5 seconds to 3rd place.

Pic: The river Nidelva where it runs through town, part of the Sprint Final map.

Tomorrow afternoon will be the Middle Distance qualification race. Jeremy starts at 14h30 and Nicholas at 14h56 (CET). Both runners will be aiming to improve on their perfomances of today, with Nicholas hoping to better his historical best position of 27th place (Ukraine 2007). Given that Jeremy's best performance is 38th (Denmark 2006), he will automatically improve just by finishing! The courses are only 3.5km in length (i.e. very slow terrain), with 170m of climb and only 11 controls!

You can follow all the action live at the WOC Live website.

SA Team ready for WOC in Trondheim

2010-08-07T22:51:00.000+02:00

Team South Africa is ready for the 2010 WOC in Trondheim. This morning, the team finished their final training run on the Model area for the Middle and Long distance Qualification.

The last week has been tough for the two South Africans, Jeremy Green and Nicholas Mulder. There is very little terrain that can replicate the tough marshy and bushy conditions that exist in the forest around Trondheim. Despite some good training over the last few months, both competitors were left feeling worn out after just a few training sessions during the pre-WOC training week.

Pic: View over the Trondheim Fjord coastline just east of the city.

The predominant note about Trondheim forest is how wet it is underfoot. Every footstep sees you sinking into the loose ground at least a few centimetres, whilst at least 1/2 of any course sees a competitor running on either damp or full marshy ground. Indeed, many route choice options will actually see competitors purposefully running in the marshes as tree density is significantly less in these places. Add in some mountainous terrain, a thick layer of 15 - 30cm high blue berry bushes as ground cover and the stage is all set for some extremely physical terrain. The average speed of the course winners will be some of the slowest in many, many years. As a result, the two team members took a well-needed rest day on Friday before completing a short model event on Saturday morning.

Pic: The map for the Model event for the Middle Qualification

The last week has also allowed the team to see some on the natural beauty of the region. The weather has been incredibly favourable in the last week, with hardly a drop of rain during the day (this has actually made the marshes relatively dry - at least by Trondheim standards). This has resulted in some beautiful sunsets and idyllic scenery. Apparently the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) has been going wild for the last few nights, alas the team has not been lucky enough to see them due to cloud cover, excessive light or the need for sleep!

The WOC Week gets off underway on Sunday morning at 9am with the Sprint Qualification. Jeremy starts at 10h10 (same time in Norway as in S.A.), with Nicholas off at 10h27. It should all be over in about 15 - 20 minutes. If either make the final (unlikely, but this is Jeremy's favourite event), this will take place later at 14h40.

In the meantime, there should also be some good Team SA support, with a small contingent of South Africans in Trondheim at the moment as spectators and to compete in the WOC Tour events. These include Kirsty Green (AR Club), Richard Lange and Jenny Bradshaw (PENOC) as well as Richard Gathercole (formerly PENOC, now resident in Austria).

Pic: Jeremy and Kirsty Green crossing a bridge in Trondheim city over the Nidelva River

The Norwegian Questionnaire

2010-06-25T12:49:00.000+02:00

A while ago the SA National team for WOC was contacted by the Norwegian Orienteering Press. They were on a mission to find out what everyone else was doing in preparation for WOC.

We were asked to answer a list of questions. The Irish team blog shows that they did a great job and duly thought long and hard before putting their fingers to the keyboard and issuing a well considered response.

I have seen too many questionnaires in my time, so as the 'less-capped' South African team member, Jeremy Green was asked to answer it. Being South African, he decided to do away with the political correctness and answer with full honesty. No responses from the Norwegian journalist (Bernt O. Myrvold) as yet...

How do the team prepare for the detailed and hilly Norwegian terrain?
Lots of hill work - Westcliff stairs - 3 minutes of stairs - improve on speed for when I can run - lots of core stability work (pilates).

Are there any specific preparations for running in the soft marshes?
Not yet - but I suppose I should think of something.

Has there been or will there be any training camps in Norwegian terrain before the event?
No

How large team are you planning to send?
2

How far before the WOC does the team plan to arrive in Trondheim?
Tuesday 3rd lunchtime

Do you expect any specific problems with food, culture etc.?
Nope

Do your federation covers the expenses for the runners, or do they have to do it themselves?
Entry clothing and some accommodation only. Flights, food and balance of accommodation covered by ourselves.

Do you have any specific goals for the results?
Not to make any big mistakes and thereby not to come last. (not sure I should say that in an interview)

SA Team for WOC 2010 - Norway

2010-06-18T15:08:00.000+02:00

South Africa will send two men to this year's World Orienteering Championship in Trondheim, Norway. The Champs take place from 07 - 15 August on the country's west coast. The terrain is expected to be hilly, wet and generally slow going.

The two competitors are:
Jeremy Green - Adventure Racing Club, Johannesburg
Nicholas Mulder - Rand Orienteering Club, Johannesburg

Both have competed in WOC before, with this being Jeremy's third appearance ('06, '07) and Nicholas' ninth ('99, '01, '03, '04, '06, '07, '08, '09). Both runners will be competing in all three individual races.

Unfortunately, this will only be the second time since South Africa's admission to the IOF (in 1993) that they will not be fielding a relay team at WOC (there were no South African representatives in Japan in WOC 2005). Since 2004, when World Championships changed from an biannual to an annual schedule, the country has struggled to field strong teams due to the increased annual costs and time burden on the runners. On a more positive note, there is a recent revival of interest amongst the elite runners in the country for participating at future WOCs. Together with a strong crop of juniors currently working their way through the ranks (a team of 8 juniors will represent the country in JWOC Denmark next month), the team should look forward to stronger representation at WOC 2011 in France and WOC 2012 in Switzerland.

More info on this years WOC can be found at http://woc2010.com/

Top 10 for South Africa at WOC!

2009-08-28T11:02:00.000+02:00

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

2009-08-18T10:38:00.000+02:00

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

2009-08-16T17:47:00.000+02:00

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

2009-08-15T21:47:00.000+02:00

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

2009-07-25T10:11:00.000+02:00

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

2009-07-18T16:54:00.000+02:00

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

2009-07-17T12:50:00.000+02:00

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

2009-07-17T03:35:00.000+02:00

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

2009-07-16T02:38:00.000+02:00

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

2009-07-01T16:47:00.000+02:00

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

2009-06-13T21:26:00.000+02:00

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

2009-06-09T08:39:00.000+02:00

, 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

Hungarian update

2009-06-02T22:43:00.000+02:00

The 4th Training Camp for WOC 2009 is almost finished. I've had a heap load of training in the last 5 days, between 1 and 3 training runs / races per day. Hungary is a very enjoyable country, but the mountains where we've been orienteering have probably been the best part. They are really beautiful for O' and for being an (active) tourist - walking trails, bike trails, caves, lakes, etc.

Although Miskolc is a pretty sizeable town with plenty of shopping malls, traffic lights and apartment blocks, you don't have to go far to find rural gridlock...

Anyway, back to the forests. They are mixed broad leaf, mainly beech with some pine. The photo is typical of the light green, but it doesn't slow you down much.

The geology is karst, so lots of limestone rocks, negative depressions, etc. Big boulders like this aren't too common though.

One of the better training runs I did was interval training, with SI timing provided. The intervals were unusually long, but then the terrain was also very fast and relatively flat. I was a bit scrappy towards the end of the training.

However, the most enjoyable session was actually a race, the Hungarian Night Champs. This was the first 'proper' night event that I've ever done, as I've only orienteered in park-type terrain at night before (and 1 rogaine). The thought of navigating in the dark through proper European forest was a bit intimidating before the start.

I managed to ace the first control, which gave me some great confidence. The 2nd control was hidden in a vegetated pit, which didn't help and then I messed up the first long leg. However, I settled down nicely after this and started picking up competitors who had started ahead of me. My big mistake was not realising where the water point was (#10) and running straight past it. I bonked big time and ended up walking large sections from #13 onwards. Nevertheless, I still thought it a great experience. Can't wait for another one!

Following the end of the training camp, I'm off to Finland to compete in the Nordic Champs / World Cup near the town of Salo. The first race, the long distance, is this Saturday.

http://www.noc2009.fi/

Nicholas Mulder

WOC Training Camp and World Cup

2009-05-30T14:13:00.000+02:00

With the World Champs and the World Games approaching fast, it's time for some serious training!

Unfortunately, being in South Africa means that it's quite a tough exercise to prepare for any specific international event. We normally pitch up at a WOC one week before the champs and do our first and final training sessions in the relevant terrain at the time that you should be tapering for the major event. In essence, we arrive at these champs with little idea of what to expect, then do a one-week crash course, starting the actual event with dead legs and totally exhausted.

This year, I've decided to do it the other way. It's going to cost a bit of time and money, but I believe its the only way of progressing towards my personal goals in international orienteering. Over the next 2 weeks, I'll be attending a special training camp in preparation for WOC '09 in Hungary, then moving onto Finland to compete in a World Cup round that incorporates the Nordic Champs.

I've already arrived in Miskolc, Hungary for the WOC Training Camp. I'm staying in the University Hotel where we'll be based during WOC itself. The journey out here was quite relaxed with everthing running to plan. The rooms are good, should be great during WOC itself. Ahead lies 11 training session, including a couple of local races (including a Night Race! - never done a 'proper' one as yet).

I'll start posting maps, my route choices, pics of the area and other comments about the training camp in the next day or two.

Nicholas Mulder

National Training Camp

2009-05-11T08:56:00.000+02:00

Both the senior and junior squads took part in a National Training Camp this past weekend in the Lakenvlei forests near Belfast. Although primarily aimed at the Junior National Squad, some of the senior squads members made the trip down to help with the camp, and also gain a great opportunity to improve their own abilities.

All in all, the participants managed to get 8 physical sessions packed into less than 48 hours! Unfortunately the weather was horrible, with very cold and wet conditions, particularly on the Saturday. This however didn't damper the atmosphere, with some great team spirit as well as intense competition taking place on some of the training exercises.

The photos are of Jeremy, Jess H. and Bradley competing in a Team Star Relay. Jess H combined with Salome to take overall honours in the exercise.

WOC 2009 - Miskolc, Hungary

2009-04-07T14:45:00.002+02:00

The South African Team for the 2009 World Champs in Hungary has been announced as follows:

- Nicholas Mulder (Rand OC)
- Eugene Botha (AR Club)
- Cobus Van Zyl (AR Club)

The team manager will be Pieter Mulder (Rand OC).

WOC will take place from 15 to 23 August 2009 in Miskolc, Hungary.

The Relay

2008-07-20T18:21:00.002+02:00

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

2008-07-18T07:57:00.004+02:00

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

2008-07-15T21:04:00.004+02:00

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

2008-07-14T21:54:00.005+02:00

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

2008-07-13T13:04:00.004+02:00

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!

2008-07-12T19:21:00.005+02:00

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

2008-07-10T09:39:00.005+02:00

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

2008-07-04T15:04:00.003+02:00

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.

Team Changes

2008-06-25T12:12:00.006+02:00

There has been much chopping and changing to the squad for WOC 2008 (Czech Republic) since January. The sad news is that the team size has fallen to 4 men and no women. Additional members were also included in the squad at various stages to ensure that South Africa field a Relay team.

The final WOC Team is:

Men
Nicholas Mulder
Garry Morrison
Paul Wimberley
Eugene Botha

Team Manager
Ian Bratt

All four competitors are in top form at the moment, as shown in the results at the recent Gauteng Orienteering Champs. In the short distance, the results were Nicholas 1st, Eugene 2nd, Paul 3rd and Garry 4th, whilst in the classic distance, the results were Nicholas 1st, Eugene 3rd, Paul 4th and Garry Dsq.

Fund Raising
The WOC Team (hereafter known as iPENGO) will be organising a fund raising event (aka Paul's beer tab) at Albert's Farm on Sunday 29th of June. Click here to download the event flyer.

2008 Team Announcement

2008-01-04T10:17:00.000+02:00

The SAOF has announced the teams for WOC 2008 in Olomouc, Czech Republic (10-20th July).

Men
Jeremy Green
Richard Lange
Garry Morrison
Nicholas Mulder
Martin Terry
Reserve 1: Owen Middleton
Reserve 2: Martin Kleynhans

Women
Margaret Archibald
Michele Botha
Lisa de Speville
Tania Wimberley

At WOC's end

2007-08-26T05:05:00.000+02:00

We've just had the last 2 days of WOC '07 fly past us. The Relay took place on Saturday whilst the Sprint Final was on Sunday.

Relay

The relay took place in and near the grounds of a cultural heritage park showcasing rural Ukrainian lifestyles. The area was dominated by various windmills.

The South African team had a poor performance, placing only 36th out of 39 starting teams. This is down on the 33rd the team achieved last year. Team Member Nicholas Mulder started off well for the team, but made two successive errors around the 10th control. He was able to recatch Tapei and Ireland, but the team still found themselves some 7 - 10 minutes adrift of their ideal placing.

Team Member Richard Lange took over the baton and improved the teams ranking from 35th after Leg 1 to 33rd after Leg 2. He was however, also unsatisfied with his run, loosing between 3 and 6 minutes en route. Anchor leg runner for South Africa was Team Member Jeremy Green, who also made approximately 10 minutes of mistakes. In the end, the team finished ahead of Hong Kong as well as the disqualified teams of Slovakia and Taipei.

At the front end of the field, Team Finland comfortably won the Women's Relay whilst Team Russia won the Men. The Swiss Team, who performed well in both categories, found themselves a new mascot. He's even got an accreditation pass! His name is Boris.

Sprint Final

The Sprint was held in superb terrain in and around Kiev's Botanical Gardens. There were no big surprises with Simone Niggli (Switzerland) taking the Women's and Thierry Gueorgiou (France) taking the Men's titles. This is now their 12th and 5th WOC golds respectively.

The Ups and Downs of Kiev

We've now spent almost 2 weeks in the Ukraine. We're only now feeling that we're coming to grips with the language, the writing, the people and the culture. We can now sort of read Cyrillic (it's actually easy as it's quite phonetic). We now know where to find the better restaurants, bars, shopping centres. We've can now pick up certain words in the Ukrainian, such as those telling us which subway station we are now at. And finally, we've learnt to look left first before crossing roads.

Kiev has a lot going for it and a lot going against it. Here are some of our more interesting observations:

The vehicle traffic is so bad it's fascinating. The big roads tend to have 8 lanes, 4 going each direction. However, when traffic backs up, almost all Ukrainians have no problem ramping up the kerb and driving on the pavement, the side road, the grass in-between and even in the lane of the oncoming traffic. Rule #1 as a pedestrian... ALWAYS keep an eye out for traffic when walking down a pavement.

The public transport system is dirt cheap... and yet highly reliable.

The city is obsessed with War memorials.

Ukrainian cereal tastes like cardboard. Ukrainian bread is even worse.

The people of the city definitely know how to party. It helps that beer is dirt cheap... and very good. It is even served and drunk on street corners!

Thanks to everyone for your support and comments on this blog. Despite early reservations, we've really enjoyed the competitions here at WOC. Here's a photo of the relay team after the finish. Hope you'll follow the team again in 2008 in Olomouc, Czech Republic.

Signing off...

Team Members Nic, Jeremy, Richard. Team Manager Ian and Team Cheerleader Jenny.

We're hot in the Ukraine

2007-08-24T09:38:00.000+02:00

The Middle and Long distance finals have come and gone, with the usual suspects taking the gold medals away. A surprise was that Finland managed to take 2 gold medals in the Long Distance women's race after Minna Kaupi and Helli Jukola dead-heated to the second after 80 minutes of running.

The last few days have been sweltering. The Long final was held in temperatures of 35' centigrade. Today (a rest day) was even hotter, with temperatures purportedly climbing to 38'C. The S.A. team wouldn't know... we've been sheltering in various locations... anywhere with an airconditioner. These are quite hard to find however... our rooms definately don't have, but the gym, internet room and a nearby western-style shopping centre do. Today was the National Independence Day celebrations. I'm sure the Hydropark on the island in the middle of the river was packed.

Relay

Tomorrow (Saturday) is the relay event. South Africa will be team number 33 (our position last year) and will be led off by Team Member Nicholas Mulder. He will then hand over to Team Member Richard who will in turn hand over to anchor leg runner, Team Member Jeremy Green.

There is a massive turnout of teams in the Men's competition, although Serbia and Romania won't be on the start line. Some of the teams S.A. will be out to beat include Hong Kong, Taipei, China, Kazakstan and Turkey. Other possible targets are Moldova, Israel and possibly Ireland and Slovenia. The teams main target however is to improve it's rankings from last year's 33rd. This would put at least 7 countries behind them.

2007-08-22T08:43:00.000+02:00

The Official Opening Ceremony for the 2007 World Orienteering Championships took place yesterday evening. Team Member Jeremy Green was nominated as the South African representative to take part in the parade of nations.

The ceremony was quite festive, appreciably short and quite entertaining. Interestingly, the ceremony took part in an amphitheatre in front of a monument in central Kiev that is dedicated to "the reunification of Ukraine with Russia". Interesting one.

The spectators were treated to unusually short speeches by various dignitaries, an army marching band that broke out into cabaret (really got the crowd going), some Ballroom Dancing by the national paralympic champions of the Ukraine, and some spectacular folk dancing that redefined some orienteers standards of flexibility and quad muscle strength.

All the teams were presented with a token gift by the organisers. It was only a loaf of local bread, but I'm sure there's a bit of tradition behind this. Jeremy got to it before the rest of the team did...

I suppose every team has a character like this...

Team Austria, together with Team Defector Richard Gathercole was in the audience as well. Below is a snap of him wearing his the opposition colours... He does look a bit humble (and grey haired).

Before the opening ceremony we did manage to get a good walk around some of the older parts of Kiev. The highlights are the monasteries (spectacular) and the catacombs below some of them where ancient monks are laid to rest in glass coffins for all to see.

Here are some of the team members winding their way between various churches on the main hill in Kiev.

Wednesday is the Middle Distance Final. The South African team will be out spectating for this one. The field is quite open this year, so it's going to be interesting to see who emerges as World Champion in this discipline.

Middle Distance Qualifier

2007-08-20T04:26:00.000+02:00

Monday 20th - Middle Qualification

Middle distance runners woke this morning to a blanket of mist covering Kiev. It was not to last however. By the time of the first start at 09h30 this morning, the cloud had lifted and the temperature immediately rose. Air humidity was also quite a bit higher from the Long Qualification of Sunday.

The South African WOC Squad put together another bunch of mixed results. In Heat A Team Member Richard Lange got off to a bad start, missing on the first control and having to relocate and attack from an easier attack point. He settled down however and still managed to put in a good result given the low visibility terrain. He finished in 34:28, in 34th position out of 40 starters. The tough terrain, with vague contour detail at an interval of only 2.5m, in the dense green vegetation, saw many competitors disqualified for various reasons, including running over-time. Quite a number of 'definite' qualifiers also made costly errors and will now not appear in the Middle Final.

On heat B, Team Member Jeremy Green ran a fair race, with no major errors but quite a few smaller ones. He finished round about 52 minutes, but learnt immediately that he had mispunched control #8 (a nearby re-entrant instead of a depression).

Team Member Nicholas Mulder ran heat C and finished in 38:01, to claim 27th out of 41 starters. Nic got off to a good start, catching an Israeli participant 2 minutes ahead before the first control, and continued this form until #5. A long leg saw Nic loose time and contact with the Israeli before further small errors over the rest of the course. In the end however, a good result.

Maps

The South African WOC Team has managed to put some of their route choices up.

Here is Team Member Jeremy Green's run on the Sprint Qualifier:

Here is Team Member Nicholas Mulder's route on the Long Qualifier:

Whilst here is Team Member Richard Lange's route choice on today's Middle Qualifier:

Other Stuff

We've taken a few more photos from our high perch on top of Hotel Tourist. First is a statue on the other side of the Dnieper River, built in the early '80s. It's apparently the 3rd highest in the world. We can't go visit it just yet, as the area around it will be used for the Sprint Final this coming Sunday.

The Hotel Tourist is in part of Kiev that is more accurately described as 'suburban'. All of the building are apartment flats. Here is a view of some of the neighbouring ones. Don't let their dilapidated state fool you... housing prices are still sky-high in Kiev due to a housing shortage. Expect to pay US$700 per month for a 2-room apartment in one of these run down establishments. if you are lucky enough to find one to buy, expect to pay well above US$ 100'000. (Yes, prices are advertised in US $). Although not visually aesthetic on the outside, most apartments are well looked after once past the apartment door.

As alluded to in yesterday's post comments, there are a few more South Africans in the WOC area. Richard Gathercole is the Team Manager for the Austrian Team as well as being the South African Team Sandwich Maker. Although not yet spotted, ROC member (now living back in Sweden) Gosta Guteland will also be participating in the WOC Tour public races.

Coming Up

The next few days are going to be a well deserved break for the South Africans. Team Manager Ian Bratt puts on his other cap as SAOF President and attends 101 different IOF meetings. The team will go for a long walk around the main city area of Kiev tomorrow and do some sightseeing before attending the official Opening Ceremony. On Wednesday we'll be spectating at the Middle Final and maybe running a spectator race. Thursday is the Long Final. Friday will be a good rest day before the Relay event on Saturday.

The team wi'll put up some more interesting pictures of Kiev on the blog tomorrow evening.

Sprint and Long Qualifications

2007-08-19T07:54:00.000+02:00

Saturday 18th - Sprint Qualification

Saturday was hot and muggy. Temperatures were in the mid to low 30's and the sun shone down mercilessly. The men's sprint qualification race was set for mid-afternoon. Lovely.

Then the organisers threw in problems to add to everyone's woes... After a 30 min metro trip, early starters arrived at the bus station to find no buses available for them. After 40 mins of waiting in the hot car park, a non-airconditioned, non-windowed bus took them a further 20 minutes to the start check-in.

Team Member Nic was first off. He had 20 minutes to get changed and warm-up (well... lets just call it jogging and stretching... you couldn't get any warmer) before his start. Other countries had competitors with even less time. Thankfully, the rest went according to plan and the team was able to settle down and focus on their races.

Team Member Richard posted the best result of the day in the B heat, finishing 32nd (out of 39) in a time of 16:07 for the 2.9km course. Team Member Nic was 33rd in A heat in 16:20 and Team Member Jeremy 36th in C heat in 16:47. All the winning times were about 12 - 13 minutes. Rich felt that he suffered on the last big hill with a few controls to go, Nic was quite happy with his whole run, whilst Jerm said he felt sluggish and tired, his only mistake of the day taking place right in front of all the spectators at the mid-way viewing control. The team was surprised to find that the training areas and model area were not fully indicative of the terrain on the course, with virtually no undergrowth in existence.

Team South Africa Supporters Club Chairperson Jenny was in vocal attendance amongst the spectators. Somehow in all the hoo-haa, she managed to find 2 other S.A. expats in the crowd, living in Kiev on a year's contract.

Photo - Team Members Nic and Richard looking at the results board.

Sunday 19th - Long Qualification

The team woke up very early on Sunday morning to the beautiful sight of cloud cover and much cooler weather that lasted through to the afternoon. Transport to the start was much better (at least for the S.A. contingent), leaving the three competitors with nothing on their minds apart from orienteering.

Team Photo: (clockwise, from the tubby guy...) Team Member Nic, Team Member Richard, Team Manager Ian, and Team Member Jeremy.

Once again the forest was different from the expected. Very little undergrowth and almost no nettles were in evidence, although good tracking was found for the late runners (Jeremy and Nic) in the river valleys. The big surprise was the high percentage of semi-open and open areas on the map.

The course tooks its toll on quite a few competitors. Many seemed to have made very big errors at various points. Team Member Nic ran most of the way from his #6 to #8 before realising his mistake, whilst Team Member Jeremy spent 15 minutes looking for one control. Team Member Richard mentioned something about being b******* (see typical photo below... photo courtesy of Team Princess Jenny).

Team Member Nic produced the best result of the day, finishing 24th out of 36 participants in Heat B (1:15:44). This was still 12 minutes away from qualification however (15th place). Team Member Richard finished 34th, in a time of 1:33:57 in Heat C whilst Team Member Jeremy finished 35th, in a time of 1:36:07 in Heat A.

More results online at:
http://woc2007.org.ua/live/results-online.html

For some great O' news:
http://worldofo.com/news/L_ENG.html

Tomorrow

Monday morning sees the last of the qualifiers, the Middle Distance. Jeremy is off early, Richard in the middle bunch and Nic will start late.

Keep posted for tomorrow's blog highlights including:

Maps with the SA route choices for the last 2 days.
Photos.
More photos.
And even more photos.

The SA Orienteers and the Ukrainian Models

2007-08-17T08:53:00.000+02:00

WOC has officially started. We registered last night and received our maps for the model terrain areas. We spent most of today (Friday) visiting these areas.

This morning we travelled slightly out of Kiev to the east to visit Brovary, an area similar to the Middle Distance Qualification race that will take place on Monday. The map is 1:10'000 with 2.5m contours. Weeds, brambles and nettles lurked everywhere under the forest, but the most startling part of the map a very green area circled in pink, with an annotation indicating that this would be the standard on the Qualification map!

We travelled immediately from Brovary, back into Kiev to the other side of the Dnieper River. The Feofaniya map is south and west of the city, showing terrain that is similar to the Sprint and Long Distance Qualification races. We didn't do too much out in the forest here, only a few controls covering about 2km just to get used to the map interpretation and terrain.

We've seen two glorious Orthodox churches near each area today. The first, smaller church was in Brovary, pictured below with Team Manager Ian and Team Member Richard caught posing.

The other is a Monastry / Church on the Feofaniya map. The parkland where we orienteered in front appeared to be a botanical garden in development (there was an ongoing battle between the organisers and the security guards whether we were allowed to walk on the grass). Flower beds were shown as out of bounds on the Sprint Specification map, including a few beds of Cosmos flowers.

The Dniper River is big. Real big. Our best estimates are that it is probably about 2km wide, with many islands in midstream. The old town is on the west bank, whilst the 'Hotel Tourist' where we are staying, is on the flatter east bank. The river eventually empties out into the Black Sea approx. 300km south of here, near the Crimean peninsula. The river in Kiev is still about 100m above sea level.

Tomorrow (Saturday), is the Sprint Qualification race, to be run in the mid-afternoon. Nicholas is running early, Richard middle and Jeremy late in the 3 different heats. Top 15 in each heat go through to the final. No one is placing bets on us getting in, but we'll try. It will be interesting to see how much of a role the tracks laid down by earlier orienteers in the forest will have for later runners. WOCs normally try to avoid areas where grass / weeds allow easy tracking, giving later runners an advantage. This would be impossible in Ukraine however, given the terrain.

In the meantime, some of the team members are getting some rest...

Forest Clearing

2007-08-16T09:38:00.000+02:00

***News Break***
Team Manager Ian has arrived.... fun's over now. Time to get serious.
***News Break***

We did another training session this morning. The good news is that this area was actually quite nice! Although there were still sections of heavy nettle and bramble growth, the forest was much more runnable. Contours were much more gentle as well. Good, clean, fun orienteering.

Here's a photo of Team Member Richard and Team Mascot Jenny in the area.

Here is the map of Obukhiv, a relay training area. Team Member Nic's course is in light pink. Most of us cut out one loop so that we did about 5km instead of the official 7.3km.

We got lost going to Obukhiv, but we blame the Aussie Japanese Coach.... (*grin*). Directions to the training areas were complicated, and by the time this set had been translated from Ukrainglish to Aussienese and finally to Safrican, there were a few too many mistakes. Correcting misktakes is near impossible due to the lack of any English amongst the general population and the use of Cyrillic for all signs in the Ukraine. After a two metro trains and a mini-bus taxi ride to some far corner of the Kiev, we eventually relented and hopped on board a private taxi. For approx R30pp he took us the rest of the 45km to the 'nearby' city of Obukhiv. They'd changed the start location though, resulting in a final 2km walk across the map.

The way back home was much smoother and quicker. Perfect navigation.

Pic: Team Member Richard, Team Cheerleader Jenny and Team Member Jeremy after their run.
Team China (in background) say

Dogs rule the streets and parks of Kiev. Well, sort of. There are definitely plenty about. Most of them are wild and most of the orienteers are pretty frightened by them. We've all already met a few in the forest, but Team Member Richard and Team Member Jeremy each had to deal today with one that came up to them barking. They stood their ground and avoided any nasty situations. A couple of months ago two British girls were bitten here whilst training for WOC.

On another topic: after yesterday's somber post, we thought you'd appreciate a balanced view of Kiev, so we took a photo out the other side of the hotel...we think this is the prettier side.

And finally. Don't ask me... All I asked was for them to pose for a photo...

Welcome to Kyiv (aka Київ)

2007-08-15T09:33:00.000+02:00

Well, we have all made it to Kiev... well almost. Team Manager Ian is due to arrive on Thursday evening... The rest of us are here. Team Member Nicholas, Team Member Richard, Team Member Jeremy, and don't forget Team Physiotherapist/Masseuse/Go'fer Jenny all arrived safely at various times on Monday.

Here is the glorious view from our Hotel Room....

The metro runs until well past 1am, and the flow of cars never stops. We've started to think of it as 'white noise'.

We have had a handful of training events so far... We're using public transport. All the training areas and WOC event venues are in and around the City of Kiev. Most of the areas involve taking firstly the Metro (80 S.A. cents) followed by a jaunt in a 20-seater mini-bus taxi (R1.50 per fare).

Tuesday 14th August, A.M.
'Bykovnia'... a middle distance training area. This was a reasonably nice area... but the proliferation of nettles under the trees was a bit worrying! Over the first 4 controls, the mapping was... interesting. Thankfully it was easier to read when we got into the more contoured terrain on the southern half of the map. The area was mixed deciduous and pine forest over sand dune topography.

Tuesday 14th August, P.M.
'Zaliznychnyi', a sprint distance training area. This was located amongst some of the inner suburbs of Kiev, in between towering communist-era housing blocks. Once again reasonably nice area (apart from the nettle places...), but lots of dumped rubbish out in the forest. The area brought up fond memories of Olievenhoutsbosch.

Thursday 15th August, A.M.
'Vyshgorod', our first classic distance training area... and definitely a big shock. The area was covered by extremely steep gullies, generally between 15 and 30 metres high. The slopes were treacherous, even with O' shoes, the gully floors were flooded with nettles and bush. The marshes were also a bit off-colour. None of us found the orienteering experience pleasant and we are now dreading the Long Distance Qualifications and the Relay.

In our next blog:

The wild dogs of Kiev
How to read Cyrillic 101